Bird-watching tours in Montezuma County and lectures about birds will take place May 8-12 in Cortez during the 15th annual Ute Mountain-Mesa Verde Birding Festival.

The festival designs activities and tours to suit birders’ ability, age and interest. Evening lectures, social hours, a bird-themed art show and banquet add to the festival’s five days of learning, socializing and birding.

The festival provides van transportation for each tour so that participants receive full benefit from birding guides while visiting the birding sites.

Birding is becoming more popular because it is inexpensive and bird habitat surrounds us.

“It’s one of those things that once you start, it becomes a lifelong hobby,” said organizer and birder Diana Cherbeck. “The Four Corners is especially good for birding because of our varied elevations, which makes for a unique cross-section of different bird species.”

For more information or to register, visit www.utemountainmesaverdebirdingfestival.com or call the Cortez Cultural Center, 970-565-1151 ext. 14.

Presentations from bird experts also will take place during the festival. The lectures Wednesday to Friday are at the Cortez Cultural Center and are open to the public with a $5 fee at the door.

Ryan Crouse, manager of Arizona Field Optics and Jay’s Bird Barn, will cover optics: how to use them effectively and how they pertain to digiscoping, a technique using a digital camera to record a distant image by coupling it with an optical telescope. Hands-on lessons are possible.

Tim Reeves, retired professor at San Juan College in Farmington, presents tips for identifying shorebird species observed in the Four Corners. Discussion examines the impact of climate change on the occurrences of regional birds.

Carolyn Gunn, retired aquatics veterinarian for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, gives an overview of the American black swift and reviews results of recent research into its diet, plumage, genetics, phenology and migration patterns.

David Faulkner, retired natural resource biologist, will lead a tour of Hawkins Preserve during peak wildflower bloom. Protected for decades, the 122 acres within Cortez city limits incorporate vegetation of native sagebrush, slickrock, pinon-juniper, riparian and rimrock habitats. Specific species are emphasized for value as dye plants, medicine, wildlife browse, horticulture and bird habitat. The tour is rated “easy.”

Erik Hendrickson, retired engineer of the National Park Service, will lead a tour departing after the evening presentation to listen for and to sight Four Corners owl species such as the barn, great horned, flammulated, burrowing, long-eared, northern saw-whet and Western screech owls. The tour is rated “easy.”

The half-day tour explores the Geer Natural Area at the northern edge of Cortez to provide birders with a hands-on opportunity to learn or improve skills in using binoculars and spotting scopes. Geer Park’s year-round pond attracts scrub jays, Northern flickers, waterfowl and waders as well as a variety of sparrow and finch species.

Biologist Ilyse Gold, a Four Corners biological consultant, leads a tour of the 560-acre East Canyon Ranch, between the Menefee Mountain Wilderness Study Area and BLM lands south of Mancos. The conservancy-protected ranch hosts bald eagles and peregrine falcons, and might reveal black-headed grosbeaks, Virginia’s warblers, plumbeous vireos, northern flickers, juniper titmouses and Western bluebirds. Participants will have dinner in the field, then owl on the return trip through the canyon. In Mancos Valley, hoot and listen for a variety of owls. The tour is rated “easy” and includes hiking. A box dinner from Mancos Brewing is provided.

This new tour is at the iconic RSL Ranch, registered as a Colorado Centennial Farm since the 1980s. The 1,000 acres of sagebrush habitat holds many species of birds. Participants will help establish a bird survey baseline for species found within the property, which encompasses critical connective wildlife habitats.

“It is a mature sagebrush stand with a lot of mountain bluebirds and kestrals,” said Cherbeck. An initial survey showed 21 species, and bird behavior suggested nesting was taking place.

Linda Martin, a retired interpretive ranger of Mesa Verde National Park, will be the guide.

Tour participants visit the Hackley Place and portions of the historic Reddert/Brown Ranch to bird among rolling hills, meadows, ponderosa forest and riparian areas, plus a sizable pond. The habitat mix may attract waterfowl, bald eagle, osprey, red-naped sapsuckers, warblers, bluebirds, jays, nuthatches and swallows.

The event is designed for ages 5-12 with an accompanying adult, and promotes awareness of kids’ daily surroundings. Explore bird habitats while learning to identify common local species. Parents are encouraged to join their children in a 1-mile nature walk while exploring habitat, learning bird characteristics and identifying bird species. Depart from the Cortez Cultural Center at 8:30 a.m. and travel by personal vehicles to the Butler Nature Center and alpaca ranch near Dolores. If desired, bring a picnic lunch to enjoy after the tour. Pre-registration required.

Byron Greco, retired design engineer of La Plata Electric Co., will lead a tour of high desert and sage landscapes surrounding remnants of ancient dwellings that offer bird-rich habitats. Possible stops include Canyon of the Ancients and museum, Yellow Jacket and Lowry pueblos and Sand Canyon Pueblo Trail. Open fields are ideal for buteos, eagles, falcons, horned lark and bluebirds. Pinon-juniper and cottonwood stands and rocky side canyons entice red-naped sapsuckers, Say’s Phoebes, gray vireos, titmice, wrens, flycatchers, warblers, towhees and possibly a loggerhead shrike. The tour is rated “easy.” Lunch is provided.

Donna Thatcher, director of Riverside Nature Center at the Farmington Museum, will lead a tour of Butler Corner, above Dolores. Observe broad-tailed hummingbirds and barn swallows before embarking upon easy trails that cover about 2 miles. With more than 50 nest boxes along the trails, expect to see mountain and Western bluebirds as well as tree swallows and house wrens. The expanded tour includes the Boggy Draw and House Creek areas. Habitats of mature ponderosa pine, an open understory of Gambel oak and mountain shrubs attract chickadees, Northern flickers, black-chinned hummingbirds, white-breasted nuthatches, violet-green swallows, Clark’s nutcrackers, Steller’s jays, Western tanagers and spotted towhees. The tour is rated “easy to moderate.” Lunch is provided.

This tour focuses on Lost Canyon’s riparian corridor, once a route for a historic narrow gauge railroad and the Galloping Goose. The area attracts flycatchers and other passerine species. Stands of ponderosa pine entice Grace’s Warbler, nuthatches, chickadees, woodpeckers, jays and accipiters such as sharp-shinned or Cooper’s hawks. The Summit Lake State Wildlife Area’s avian visitors include waterfowl and shorebirds with willows and aspen trees attracting warblers, sparrows, bluebirds, flycatchers and other species.

This treat incorporates a morning of birding Mancos hotspots with a gourmet brunch at a home that offers a 360-degree scenic view plus more birding opportunities. The tour starts with a visit to a prime cavity nesters site before proceeding to Cottonwood Park to look for grosbeaks, orioles, black and Say’s phoebes, American dippers, hummingbirds and warblers. Later, participants can wander a pinon-juniper habitat in search of cavity nesters, violet-green swallows, bluebirds or a black-throated gray warbler. Mothers accompanied by a full-paying offspring receive a discounted tour fee.

Erik Hendrickson, a retired engineer with the National Park Service, leads a tour of birding locales in the park. Possible sightings include accipiters, peregrine falcons, downy woodpeckers, Virginia’s and black-throated gray warblers, juniper titmouse, ash-throated and dusky flycatchers, Western tanagers, Western Wood-Pewee, Lazuli bunting, green-tailed and Spotted towhees, Rock and Bewick’s wrens, Clark’s nutcrackers, red-breasted nuthatch, swifts and hummingbirds. The tour is rated “easy to moderate.” Lunch is provided.