Black Belt Birding Trail features 32 sites in 11 counties

The Black Belt may one day also be known as the Bird Belt.

A Black Belt Birding Trail runs across the state and lists 32 sites across 11 counties.

The state’s eight birding trails are a joint project of the Alabama Tourism Department, the University of Alabama Center for Economic Development, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and Alabama Audubon.

A film crew used Selma locations to produce promotional material to attract birders to the Black Belt Birding Trail.

Here’s what the Alabama Birding Trail has to say about the Dallas County birding sites. According to www.alabamabirding trails.com, Bloch Park and the adjacent Valley Creek Park are good sites for spotting Eastern Kingbirds, Loggerhead Shrikes and Eastern Bluebirds. Check the bridge and creek below for Louisiana Waterthrushes, Acadian Flycatchers and Eastern Phoebes. Beyond the open field lies Valley Creek Park, where the trees host Yellow-throated and Red-eyed Vireos and Northern Parulas in warmer months, and Pine Warblers year-round. Almost any of Alabama’s migrant species can be found here, along with a good mix of breeding and wintering birds, according to the site.

A little closer to downtown on AL-22 lies Live Oak Cemetery, which features “row upon row of massive live oaks draped in Spanish moss,” the site says. “The oaks hold good numbers of breeding birds – from Red-shouldered and Cooper’s hawks to warblers, vireos, Summer Tanagers and various flycatchers. Winter brings many sparrows to the open understory, and mixed-species feeding flocks of songbirds.”  

Old Cahawba Archaeological Park and the adjoining Old Cahawba Prairie Preserve offer more than 3,000 acres of black belt prairie habitat of native grasslands and pine-plantation forest. “Expect a mixture of grassland birds, such as sparrows, buntings, and Blue Grosbeaks; second-growth lovers, such as Chats and Prairie Warblers, and pine forest denizens, such as Brown-headed Nuthatches and Pine Warblers,” the site says.

The archeological park’s hardwoods host woodland songbirds, from warblers and vireos to Summer Tanagers, Great Crested Flycatchers and Yellow-billed Cuckoos. “There is an abundance of food and shelter here, and a minimal amount of disturbance, so populations of birds are good,” according to the site. 

Paul M. Grist State Park is a good site for woodland and riparian songbirds, and ducks visit in the winter. Dallas County Lake, less than 15 minutes from Selma, “presents an excellent opportunity to see waders up close and swallows and bluebirds in large numbers.” Woodland songbirds, Chats, Prairie Warblers, Indigo Buntings and Blue Grosbeaks can be sited as well. 

In nearby Perry County lies Perry Lakes and the State Fish Hatcheries, which the site describes as “one of Alabama’s premier birding sites.” The website encourages birders to “experience the view from the 100-foot-high birding tower, which offers eye-to-eye views of songbirds, as well as excellent views of soaring raptors.” The tower was built by the Auburn University Rural Studio. 

Roland Cooper State Park, Shell Creek and East Bank, Chilatchee Creek and Gees Bend parks are official sites on the Black Belt Birding Trial in Wilcox County.