Montana WILD to connect classrooms in Montana and Mexico through migratory birds

HELENA – This spring, Montana WILD Education Center will work with a local Helena classroom to learn about several neotropical migratory birds that live and breed here in Montana during the summer months. Students will learn about these species, their habitat requirements, migratory routes and their wintering grounds. One place that these species may winter is in southern Mexico, and more specifically in one of the most biologically diverse states in the country, Oaxaca.

Staff from Montana WILD have connected with an ornithologist in Oaxaca, named Sergio Gomez, who runs a bird-banding station. Montana WILD staff realized that Gomez was capturing and banding many of the same species that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists catch in Montana. By comparing data from Gomez and FWP wildlife biologist Vanna Boccadori, who bands birds in the Mount Haggin Wildlife Management Area, the scientists noticed that there were five common species: Swainson’s thrush, Wilson’s warbler, yellow-rumped warbler, orange-crowned warbler and western tanager.

On Monday, May 3, Helena students will spend a day at Montana WILD participating in various bird lessons and activities. As a wrap-up activity, they will write letters to students in Oaxaca explaining what they have learned about the birds that travel between these places, and how they will take care of those birds and their habitats while they are here in Montana. When these birds return to Mexico in the fall, Gomez will visit classrooms in Oaxaca to deliver similar lessons about birds and their migratory journeys. He will translate and deliver the letters from Helena students to the students in Mexico. Those students will then have an opportunity to write a response.

“The theme of this project is to think global and act local,” said Corie Rice of Montana FWP. “The hope is to teach students that bird conservation and research requires international cooperation and that our local efforts here in Montana can have a global impact.” 

For more information, contact Montana WILD at 406-444-9941.