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About an hour after dawn Wednesday, a group of about a dozen people walked Roosevelt Island, hoping to spot visiting migratory birds. The birds, from as far away as the Southern Hemisphere, had stopped on this wooded spit in the middle of the Potomac River to rest, rejuvenate and prepare for the next leg of their journey.

Facilitating the group was Gary Allport, a spokesperson for the advocacy group BirdLife International, a nonprofit that works to protect bird populations and conserve the land they need to breed. That morning, he marveled at some species’ ability to traverse vast distances in the ordinary course of avian life, some flying hundreds of miles in one evening as part of their annual trips up and down the planet.

There was just one word for such a feat: “amazing,” Allport said.

“I’ve always loved birds,” he said. “There’s a freedom of spirit that they embody.”

BirdLife organizes “bird walks” around the world to protect what it calls “flyways” — the intercontinental aerial paths birds travel, including natural rest stops at places like Roosevelt Island. The walks draw advocates and other passionate birders who want to promote conservation while checking out the feathered friends popping in.

In D.C., Roosevelt Island is a prime location to spot migratory species on their journey north from various points south. Birders have spotted more than 120 species on the island, according to BirdLife, including the 10-centimeter eastern winter wren and larger species such as the osprey and the American eagle.

Support for birds is greatly needed, as these animals’ health signals the health of the environment as a whole, according to BirdLife chief executive Martin Harper. The population of nearly half of all migratory bird species is declining, according to BirdLife, and 1 in 5 are at risk of extinction. With keen eyes and smartphone apps that track species and identify birdsong using AI, birders can monitor the metaphorical (and actual) canaries in the coal mine.

“Birds are beautiful — and incredibly well-studied,” Harper said. “They are the barometers of the rest of wildlife. Birding brings people together, and we can be the eyes and the ears.”

Also: Birders get to look at birds. Wednesday’s perambulation of Roosevelt Island was less a “walk” than a “stop-and-look” as birders tried to identify species that wouldn’t typically be found in the D.C. region.

Erin Chen, vice president of development for the nonprofit American Bird Conservancy, stopped to investigate the possible sighting of a black-and-white warbler, a species native to <a href="https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/black-and-white-warbler" target=_blank>Central and South America</a>. Chen said she was introduced to birding by a former boss who set aside time for birdwatching during business travel.

Once Chen got pulled in, there was no getting out of what she called an “addicting” pastime — one that can show society why nature is worth protecting.

“This gets people to slow down,” she said. “When people don’t care about nature, they can’t conserve it.”

Though the birders on Roosevelt Island pursue the birding lifestyle — which can demand international travel and the maintenance of “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2023/03/16/how-to-birdwatch-birder-backyard/" target=_blank>life lists</a>” of species sighted — with varied intensity, they care deeply about the animals they trail.

Bruce M. Beehler is an ornithologist and the author of <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12817/birds-north-america" target=_blank>a bird atlas</a> who once served as a research associate in the Division of Birds at the National Museum of Natural History. On a break from species-spotting on Roosevelt Island, he said that the sight of a red-bellied woodpecker as a child growing up in Baltimore in the late 1950s changed his life. The woodpecker was an “epiphany,” he said, one that led him into a life of science.

“I was just a young kid who didn’t have anything going for me,” he said. “The bird showed me the way.”

Not every bird was a life coach or celebrity. The birders dismissed a mallard — a common sight in the District — with little more than a glance. Nor was spotting a grackle the cause for much celebration.

However, Marcelo Tognelli of the American Bird Conservancy said that a bird sighting’s worth is in the eye of the beholder. Some birds common to our region, such as blue jays and cardinals, are beautiful — but not fawned over because we see them so often. A birder from a distant land might think otherwise.

“The more rare the thing, the more precious,” he said.

As the birding crew prepared to depart Roosevelt Island, it was greeted with an unexpected sight: a golden-winged warbler. The bird is rarely seen in the District, Chen said, and the one on the island might be the only one in the area.

Some birders present cried out with joy. Others hugged. Before long, other birders, catching wind of the sighting, were headed to the island to try to see the warbler themselves. At a time when rising temperatures and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/07/12/anthropocene-epoch-meaning-crawford-lake/" target="_blank">human activity</a> are permanently changing the planet, one must delight in what is still here and try to preserve it.

A previous version of this article included a photograph that misidentified a bird as a golden-winged warbler. The photo has been removed. 

Wesleyan University, BA in social science/music, 1998

Goucher College, MFA in creative nonfiction, 2014

Georgetown  University Law School, JD expected 2024

Justin Wm. Moyer is a reporter for The Washington Post. His work with a Post team covering the Capitol insurrection was honored with a Pulitzer Prize in 2022, and his coverage of Saudi lobbying with a Post team was honored as a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2019.

Justin Wm. Moyer

Mysterious visitors from other lands fly into D.C.: migratory birds 

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