With the April 8 solar eclipse approaching, wildlife experts are saying now is the time to plan where you want to watch the celestial event to witness unusual behaviors of birds and animals during this unique opportunity.
From a special event at the Erie Zoo to planning your own backyard event, those who enjoy wildlife are curious about how birds and other animals will respond.
The eclipse is expected to begin in Erie about 2 p.m. on April 8, with totality at about 3:15 p.m., according to information on VisitErie.com.
According to greatamericaneclipse.com, the eclipse will be moving in to Texas from Mexico and traveling north through Austin, Dallas, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Erie, Buffalo and Syracuse and on into Canada. The moment in Erie when the moon blocks the sun, and the sun’s outermost atmosphere, or corona, will be visible, is expected to begin at 3:16 p.m.
Sarah Sargent, executive director of the Erie Bird Observatory, has experienced an eclipse in 1990 while being in Costa Rica.
“I was able to see birds responding and acting like it was the end of the day and becoming night time,” she said. “What we saw were some vultures, turkey vultures some of the same species we have in Erie, and all of them came in and roosted in a tree as if they were getting ready for the night.
“I do think that what is going to happen is that quite a few birds are going to think suddenly it’s getting to be night time already and they may start doing activities and behaviors that would be typical of dusk, such as going to a roosting spot and preparing to sleep.”
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The spring is also a unique time for wildlife as some birds like songbirds and hawks will be migrating and others will be thinking about the breeding season.
“The birds that are nocturnal migrants may actually start to prepare for migration as if it was the end of a day and they were going to get ready to migrate overnight,” she said.
Some of the migratory songbirds may try to fly over Lake Erie and some may fly along the coastline, she said.
“It’s spring, it’s a northward migration. Birds that are moving north beyond Erie may prepare to do that,” she said.
Depending on the length of the eclipse, she said the birds won’t travel very far and will start going back to their regular activities all over again.
“A number of them will be foraging and possibly interacting with other birds of the same species, having some courtship behaviors perhaps, or singing and setting up their territories, all the normal behaviors that birds do during the day,” Sargent said.
Dawn and dusk can stimulate singing in songbirds.
“Famously, there’s a dawn chorus in the morning in springtime because all the birds start singing very loudly early morning because they are responding to the sun rising,” Sargent said. “That’s something that might actually happen in April when the sun reappears. The birds will quiet down as the sun disappears and then there may be the stimulation of singing like its the dawn chorus time as the sun reappears.”
The Pennsylvania Game Commission is also interested in seeing what happens with wildlife.
“I think the wildlife that will be affected, if any of them, will be the ones that their behavior is really cued in on light level,” said Lisa Williams, division chief for wildlife recovery for the Game Commission.
“For a lot of species, it will be an odd day for them but it may not change their behavior because they don’t really cue their behavior on light.”
She said there’s a lot happening with animals in April and the eclipse may make some creatures respond to the night sky.
“The timing is good for noticing these differences in wildlife behavior because it’s happening right in April, so all the hormones are racing right now,” Williams said. “Animals call because they are trying to attract a mate, whether you are a bird, frog or toad or a cricket. This is the time of the year when you’re really vocal and you’re trying to attract a mate.
“When you combine those two things, species that are cuing in on light level and the urge right now to be really active, trying to find a mate, you can narrow in on what species you might expect to have a change.”
The eclipse will feel like dawn and dusk, which is significant to birds that sing in the morning and quiet down at night. Robins may do their roost call, like it’s the end of the day.
“During the eclipse, I would imagine that birdsongs could hush,” Williams said.
With the gradual darkening that will happen, the birds will become quiet as the light becomes lower and they think it’s becoming nighttime.
“The thing with birds is that this is their hormone time, too. They want to be calling,” she said. “The cool thing to watch for birds is reduced activity, you may not see as many birds at your feeder as the light level drops and you may not hear as many birds calling, but also during totality when its the darkest it’s going to be, keep your ears open if you hear a few birds burst out in song, just because their hormones are so strong,”
Williams said the woodcock, a small game bird with a long beak, make a unique sound described as “peent” to attract a mate.
“They do that at very specific light levels. If you are out in wet, marshy habitat, you might try to see if you can hear woodcock peenting as the light level drops,” she said.
Crickets, frogs and toads should be calling as the light level drops. As the eclipse passes, the behaviors will return to daybreak activities.
“It will be really cool leading up to totality and even after totality to see if you notice any difference in these species,” she said.
Erie Zoo
“We’re really excited to study the behaviors around this novel event. There isn’t a lot of research out there showing data how a celestial event like this affects animal behavior not just in the wild, but also in a zoo setting,” said Roo Kojancie, president and CEO of Erie Zoological Society.
“This creates a really unique opportunity for us to study these behaviors and also contribute to a great knowledge of specific species in general.”
As the eclipse starts to happen, Kojancie believes animals will go into their evening routine, whether that’s nesting, evening vocalizations for certain species and making it back to where they spend the evening — both in the wild and at the zoo.
“We expect to see some of those evening behaviors, not only for animals that are diurnal (more active during the day than night), but also for some nocturnal species,” she said. “We are interested and may expect to see some of those animals wake up a little bit” with them thinking its evening.
“We also think that we’re going to see animals become somewhat confused. With that confusion, animals might become a little unsure or even a little anxious about what’s happening. We want to study those behaviors as well,” she said.
In reality, though Kojancie said some animals may not respond at all to the unusual change in daylight.
“In science, that’s actually a response also,” she said. “No response is something we want to document, too.”
The zoo will be open during the eclipse with an event being called Zooclipse: Solar Safari.
“We are not charging any extra for that, that’s included in the regular admission and we’re encouraging people to come and study the behaviors with us,” she said.
General admission tickets for adults are $12.
“By some celestial coincidence, the solar eclipse falls on National Zoo Lovers Day. We couldn’t be more excited that this is happening on the same day as National Zoo Lovers Day. It’s a great opportunity for the community to come and explore their local zoo and be a part of this really cool experience,” she said.
Details are still being finalized, but they have discussed handing out ethograms for people to fill out or use a mobile app to document what visitors witnessed with the exhibits.
“We are working to design something that’s very user friendly for people who might not have done this before,” she said about collecting information.
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Kojancie said people will be studying prey and predator animals. Prey animals like chickens and wallabies and the apex predators include tigers, lions and leopards.
“We are really interested to see the response between an apex predator and a prey animal,” she said.
They will also be watching the differences happening between mammals and birds. The event will be held even if it’s a poor weather day.
“Even if it’s a cloudy day, it will be even a darker day, so I think that while we want it to be sunny to be able to witness the entire event,” Kojancie said, “to be able to see the shadow and all that, it also could provide some pretty impactful information if it’s cloudy as well. We’ll take whatever comes.”
What people can do
If you want to help document what happens, there are a few things you can do.
Sargent urges people to become citizen scientists and report their observations to the website eBird.org.
“People can report all the birds they see and keep lists,” she said. “All the observations get summarized of which species are being seen where and when. That all is accessible for researchers to use.
“I would like to encourage people to report their behavioral sightings via the eBird website. Anybody who is already a birder should have an eBird account. You do have to have an account, but it will be very interesting to have people click in the “notes” section of their checklist that they keep during that time, to write down the notes of what you saw the birds do during the eclipse.”
Williams said now is the time to plan where you want to be when the eclipse happens, including at backyard feeders and wilderness areas.
“Swampy areas would be good for frogs, toads and woodcock. It doesn’t have to be open water, it can be a wet soggy hayfield, a wet, soggy pasture,” she said. “People can go out now at dusk before the eclipse from now until then and figure out where some good spots are to go listen and hear some woodcock peenting out in the thickets. Then they can go back on the day of the eclipse and see if they change their behavior,” she said.
She suggests having an eclipse party to see what the birds do. “It doesn’t happen very often.”
“You can’t look at the sun during totality, but you can be looking at the birds and seeing how they are behaving. You could make a big day out of it if you are paying attention to wildlife,” Williams said.
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Where to view
“Birds are widespread and you can see them pretty much anywhere. You can see them in your backyard and you can see them in other places, too,” Sargent said.
The eclipse is expected to bring in many people who want to experience the phenomena and you want to plan ahead of where you want to be to see wildlife.
“Any place that has good natural habitat and good lines of sight so you can watch things is good,” Sargent said about seeing birds.
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at[email protected] and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website’s homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook@whipkeyoutdoors, and Instagram atwhipkeyoutdoors.