March Birding Forecast

Author name

By Alex Harper



On March 1, Southern Nevada receives about eleven hours and twenty-six minutes of direct daylight. This is about an hour more of total daylight compared to that on February 1, and about an hour and forty minutes more than on January 1. On the last day of March, we receive about twelve and a half hours of daylight. The increased daylight in the northern hemisphere brings increased warmth. The additional light and heat give plants energy to photosynthesize and kickstarts the processes of putting out new leaves and flowers. Insect activity follows and ramps up.


In sync with the progressions of the seasons are billions of waterfowl, shorebirds, raptors, hummingbirds, and songbirds. Across their wintering grounds in South and Central America, Mexico, or the Sonoran Desert, these birds are fattening up and saving their energy for long, challenging journeys. Like the plants and insects, these birds register the increasing sunlight; cascades of hormonal changes prepare them for a seasonal movement that we call migration. Of these billions of birds, many millions will pass though Nevada’s skies this spring.


March offers a preview for what’s in store for April and May. Although March may have days that feel like spring, there are days that potentially can be reclaimed by winter weather. This means that for many songbirds, it may be too energetically taxing and risky flying northwards into our region in March. It could even be fatal if an intense cold snap occurred. A few species of land birds do manage to successfully navigate the temperamental month of March, seemingly adapted to cope with the unpredictability. 


These birds include Yellow-headed Blackbirds and cowbirds, which are sometimes coming from marshes and agricultural areas of Southern Arizona or northern Mexico, are some of the first to arrive. You may find or hear these birds at familiar parks, especially any with stands of wetland vegetation or large lawns. Their relative, Hooded Orioles, come back by late March, preferring to be closer to trees such as palms.


Along the Colorado River or Clark County Wetlands Park, the Lucy’s Warbler begins to trickle in. These small, gray warblers seek out stands of mesquite tress, joining the assemblage of overwintering Yellow-rumped and Orange-crowned Warblers. The Lucy’s Warbler winters as close by as the Mexican state of Sinaloa. This means that the distance that they needed to traverse to get to Southern Nevada is far less than that of comparatively sized warblers wintering deeper into Mexico and helps explain why we see these warblers arrive well before the others. It’s one of the only warblers to breed in tree cavities, and they prefer mesquite groves and wooded wetlands for nesting habitat.


Other birds on their way through Nevada in March are swallows. These strong flyers are diurnal migrants, and unlike most other songbirds, they have the advantage of being able to hunt flying insects as they migrate northbound. Tree, Violet-green, Barn, Northern Rough-winged and Cliff Swallows may be seen cruising low and purposefully northward through open desert or stopping to feed and drink anywhere with surface water. Some of the Northern Rough-winged or Cliff Swallows may end their spring journey in Las Vegas or Henderson, as some create nests under bridges at locations like Arroyo-Grande Park or Pittman Wash.


Other birds are departing our region. The wintering duck numbers begin to thin out at the popular birding sites in the region. Geese and ducks are well-adapted to finding food in winter but often driven by accessible bodies of water for roosting or foraging. With lakes and ponds thawing out to the north, they will largely begin departing the region for the wetlands of the Great Basin and prairies of the west, the spruce forests of Canada or Alaska, or even the tundra of the Arctic.


Close to your home, you may be observing flurries of breeding behavior from resident doves, hummingbirds, and songbirds. These birds that often live their entire lifecycles in the same region breed well before some birds have begun migratory journeys that can be hundreds or thousands of miles in duration. These are the Anna’s Hummingbirds, Verdins, and Northern Mockingbirds. It’s possible that by late March you may see robins or local birds feeding young in nests.


Like every year, month, or week, no day is the same when observing birds. Each species has its own unique life history. As you get outside in March, you’ll be able to observe behavior changes amongst species and individuals. Tune in to these subtle changes and watch for the trickle of incoming spring migrants. And come April, the dam breaks, and the flycatchers, vireos, warblers, orioles and tanagers begin to pour in.

 

RECENT ARTICLES

Carolyn Titus - A Memorial

September 10, 2026
Carolyn Titus, a longtime pillar of the Las Vegas birding community, passed away this summer. If you've birded here long enough, you're likely to have crossed paths with her or picked up a copy of "Southern Nevada Birds: A Seeker's Guide,” which she wrote and published in 1991. She was an original member of Red Rock Audubon in the 1970s, having served as interim president, vice president, treasurer, education chair, field trip chair and was a longtime field trip leader. She held the long-term record of most Nevada species seen, 440, for many years. Carolyn is seen here on the left, along with Rita Schlageter and Je Anne Blackman. She's remembered by Je Anne, who met her in 1988: “I met Carolyn on my first field trip to Corn Creek. I saw a Gray Catbird. I was told very rudely by the trip leader that it was not what I had seen. Carolyn asked where I saw it, so she went back with me, and we refound the bird. Through the years, we had many birding trips. Carolyn discovered that no one had done a big day for every month in Nevada, so in 2006 we did. Our group of four consisted of Carolyn Titus, Rita Schlagter, Tracy Kipke and Je Anne Branca; needless to say, not only did we have some long days, but tons of fun.” Je Anne later traveled with her to Portland, where they found a lifer Falcated Duck and Emperor Goose. A few years later, they traveled to South Africa and New Mexico, where they saw a Brown-capped Rosy Finch, a lifer for them all. “I will miss Carolyn and all her bird knowledge,” Je Anne said. Carolyn passed away on her birthday, Aug. 16. We send our deepest condolences to Carolyn's loved ones.

September Birding Forecast

August 27, 2026
By Alex Harper If there is a light at the end of the tunnel of the dog days of summer birding in the Mojave Desert, it begins sometime in September. The warmest and most uncomfortable days are mostly behind us, and the birds register this too. If you struggled to get outside in August, you’ll find the birding opportunities more motivating. The movements that began in August are only more amplified in September. Shorebirds have been engaging in southbound movement for weeks now, congregating around reservoirs, wetlands, the Las Vegas Wash, and ephemerally flooded dry lakes. Avocets, curlews and Wilson’s Phalaropes pour in from the kettle ponds of the Great Plains or lakes of the Great Basin. Yellowlegs and Solitary Sandpipers transit on their way from the spruce bogs of Canada and Alaska, and dowitchers and Red-necked Phalaropes may be coming from open tundra of the northern edges of the North American continent. Adults are the first to arrive in late summer; first of year birds tend to arrive later, needing time to learn how to feed and fatten up on their own after being born earlier in the year. Riparian areas and parks begin to invite and harbor more songbirds. These birds may be coming from breeding territories throughout the Western Lower 48. In the weeks that follow, we will see birds that are arriving from farther distances. This makes sense; songbirds that are departing from Alaska and Canada tend not to arrive before birds that started their autumn migration somewhere in northern Nevada, Idaho, or eastern Oregon, for example. It stands to reason that the Orange-crowned Warblers, some of the Yellow Warblers, Brewer’s Sparrows and Western Tanagers, and Black-headed Grosbeaks that we see in early September may not have come from too far away to get here. The first Wilson’s Warblers that we see are probably from neighboring states as opposed to ones coming from British Columbia or the Yukon. Additionally, it is the insect-eating birds that we observe the most in September. Flycatchers, vireos, warblers and tanagers need to vacate out of the areas where insect activity can be quickly shut down by the first cold fronts. These birds make haste to destinations that support insect and invertebrate activity year-round, such as the Sonoran Desert, lowland Mexico, and tropical regions of Central America. Birds that can rely on seeds have more flexibility since their food-sources aren’t affected by temperature in the same ways. Sparrows may begin to appear more in October while finches may not begin to peak until November.  Interesting birds are often observed by the vigilant, and the vigilant are up early and at the “honey holes” at the right times. These sites include Cactus Springs, Corn Creek Field Station, Floyd Lamb at Tule Springs, Clark County Wetlands and Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, but virtually any park can attract higher volumes of birds. Infrequently seen or rare birds are often at sites amongst the regularly occurring birds for the same reasons that the habitat is attractive-looking and may have “retentive qualities” such as water, reliable food sources, and safety from predators. Outside of the suburban and urban Las Vegas Valley, spring-fed canyons can be especially interesting to visit. .

August Birding Forecast

July 26, 2026
By Alex Harper The birder that gets out in August will be rewarded with observations of migration and post breeding activities of local birds. By late summer, most birds in the northern hemisphere have wrapped up breeding. The young born this year are often now on their own, no longer dependent on their parents. During most of August, many birds are engaging in what is known as post-breeding dispersal . Post-breeding dispersal is exactly what it sounds like. After breeding and nest-rearing, adult and young birds alike spend time moving away from the nest territory. They will search for food in suitable habitat, and maybe make slow movements southward throughout the day. In short, they are searching for food and fattening up for their upcoming migration in the fall months. Look for local birds wandering into your neighborhoods in the late summer; newcomers may not be migratory but birds wandering locally. You can think of this as birds reshuffling their territories, with the young birds trying to fit in. This is distinct from migration, which often comes after post-breeding dispersal in the fall for those species that migrate. Migration is better thought of as a seasonal movement between an animal’s suitable breeding range and its suitable wintering territory. Both places serve as critical places for an animal’s survival, so much so that it is beneficial to the species to move in between the two every year of its life. In August, plovers, stilts and avocets, and sandpipers continue to move in and out of the region. Some of these characteristics include bills that are adapted for feeding on the many organisms that live along environments with shorelines. Shorebirds tend to be capable long-distance flyers, and the shorebirds species that we encounter in Nevada breed in tundra or boreal forest in Canada and Alaska. They may spend their winters in Mexico or Central and South America. Southern Nevada is a stopping point for some of them, and they congregate near the few suitable water sources. When these shorebirds stop here, they are usually stopping over to refuel. Look for yellowlegs, dowitchers, phalaropes, and various sandpipers at Clark County Wetlands, Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, and the upper Las Vegas wash. While in shorebird habitat, keep an eye out for unusual herons and egrets, as well as Black Terns. High-elevation mountains like the Springs and Sheep Ranges promise of water and cooler temperatures and invite migratory birds as well. By early August, hummingbird migration is in full swing. The canyons and hillsides of the higher elevations are ripe with blooming penstemons and thistles, and they continue to entice the odd Calliope or Rufous Hummingbirds, and they will duel with Anna’s, Black-chinned, and Broad-tailed Hummingbirds for rights to flowers.  Some songbirds will begin to sneak through as well. In late August, it can be fruitful to hang out by springs in the Spring Mountains. Deer Creek Picnic Area is a great place. Find any water running by a picnic table and sit by the water. Listen and watch, and eventually you may notice songbirds. They may come in waves of small groups that might be made up of birds of many ages, sexes, and species. These are known as mixed flocks. You may see migratory vireos, warblers, grosbeaks, and tanagers that are coming from other mountain ranges from farther north joining birds that spent the summer in the Spring Mountains, for example. It’s impossible to tell the newcomers from the locals apart, but the fluctuations in numbers during migration help to give part of the plot away. .