Paradise not yet lost
The Tanagers and Warblers of Gamboa, Panama

It is almost impossible for a migratory bird to live outside its short life without coming face to face with our modern civilization and all the changes this has brought to the lands we share with them. Tropical forests are being cleared at the highest rate in the history of mankind, and grassland birds have had their tropical homes plowed to grow foods that we can eat. Migrants are forced to dodge their way over and around farms, cities and suburban sprawl as they leapfrog north to their breeding grounds. When we see a beautiful bird singing in the park on a spring day, it is easy to forget that many others did not survive the long journey.

At our farm in Pennsylvania, a male American redstart pirouettes among the fresh buds of the maple trees that line our driveway, flashing black and orange as he goes. He pauses several times a minute to belt out a high-pitched tsee, tsee, see-see, see-you challenge to the male across the road. Forgotten for the moment is his winter territory in a lush mangrove forest along the southern coast of Jamaica, though he will return there when the summer days get shorter and signal that it is time to travel. High in a cherry tree near the edge of the pond a female Baltimore oriole hangs upside down, her yellow olive colours blending in subtly with the dried grasses she is busily weaving into her half-built nest. A few months earlier she was feeding on nectar from the bright orange flowers of an Erythrina tree in a coffee plantation in southern Mexico. The stunning colours of the male scarlet tanager singing in the giant oak tree back in the woods are purely for showing off. Earlier that year, he was in plain clothes as he gobbled down small fruits from a fig tree in the forested lowlands of Ecuador. Within the dark hemlocks that hug the stream a female Acadian flycatcher gives the chiff calls that she used far away in Panama to defend her winter home.

Migratory songbirds lead an intriguing double life. The birds that we welcome to our backyards, meadows and forests in spring have just completed a marathon flight after living for many months in their tropical homes. These migrants are vulnerable to environmental threats that occur thousands of kilometres away from where they breed, in places many of us have never had the chance to see for ourselves. Whether or not particular species are in harm's way depends entirely on the details of their natural history, including what they eat, where they live, and how they compete for the essentials of life: space, food, and mates. This variety among songbirds is what makes them so interesting for naturalists, bird watchers, and ornithologists, but it also makes it a difficult task to keep track of bird numbers from year to year and to pinpoint the cause of their declines.

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Adapted from Silence of the Songbirds by Bridget Stutchbury. Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. Copyright 2007 by Bridget Stutchbury. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.