Class Instructor: Shelia Hargis
Class level: Introductory/Beginner
Virtual Lecture dates: Wednesday evenings, February 19, 26, March 5 and 12, from 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM.
Field Trip Date(s):Sunday mornings, February 23, March 2, 9 and 16 from about 7:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Class fee: $110 for members / $140 for non-members
Class size: 12

Introduction to Bird Behavior: Behavior, Life History, and More

February – March 2025

One of the great aspects of birding is that you can approach it from many different angles. You can casually observe birds when they cross your path. You can sit in your backyard and enjoy the birds coming to your feeders and bird baths. You can focus on identifying as many birds at a location as possible. You can “chase” birds all over the world. Or you can watch birds and actively attempt to understand their behavior. Watching birds with the goals of understanding what they are doing and better understanding how they live their lives is the focus of this Travis Audubon class.

In order to really understand a bird’s behavior, a variety of information is required. You need to take your identification skills further to determine the age and the sex of the bird(s) involved. You need to know some bird biology. You need to properly document the behavior you observed, and you need to research the available literature to see if the behavior you observed has been documented and explained. After all of this, maybe, you can interpret the behavior to understand why the bird was doing what it was doing. Even if you can’t explain the “why” behind the behavior, you will have a deeper connection to our amazing birds from having observed them going about their lives. This class will deepen your enjoyment, understanding and appreciation of birds. Students should be able to identify most of the common birds in the Austin area – having completed the Introduction to Birds class is perfect preparation for this class.

Shelia Hargis is the instructor for this class. She has been birding for over 25 years and lives and breathes birds! Luckily, she recently retired and can now spend nearly all of her waking hours birding, learning about birds, and/or thinking about birds. Within the last few years, she has become very interested in watching bird behavior to better understand how birds live their lives, and she recently completed the Cornell Lab’s Ornithology: Comprehensive Bird Biology online course with some of her birding buddies. Shelia teaches other classes, gives presentations on a variety of bird topics, surveys birds for the City of Austin and the North American Breeding Bird Survey, participates in numerous Christmas Bird Counts each year, and leads birding field trips. She is Past President of both Travis Audubon and Texas Ornithological Society and is still very active with both of those organizations. She is also a Capital Area Master Naturalist, Class of 2022.

The class will be comprised of four virtual classroom sessions and four field trips. The classroom sessions will be held via Zoom on Wednesday evenings, February 19, 26, March 5 and 12, from 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM. The field trips will be held on Sunday mornings, February 23, March 2, 9 and 16 from about 7:30 AM – 11:30 AM. Tuition is $110 for TAS members and $140 for non-members. Registration is limited to 12. If you have any questions, contact Shelia Hargis at shelia.hargis@gmail.com or 512-294-0272.

REGISTER HERE

The email used to register for this walk will be used to communicate any changes or cancellations due to weather or other factors. Please ALWAYS check your email inbox on the morning of the walk, prior to leaving your home, in case of last-minute changes in the trip plan. Please also check to be sure our emails do not land in your spam folder. When in doubt, please call or email your trip leader. We encourage participants to put the leader’s email address in their safe sender list. Their contact information is included in this trip description.

Payment for a class, workshop, or other fee-based event is due at the time of registration. If payment is not received within a week of registration, the registrant may be dropped from the roster. To withdraw from a class, workshop, or other fee-based event, please contact the Travis Audubon office: 512-300-BIRD (2473) or info@travisaudubon.org.

If a registrant withdraws from a class, workshop, or other fee-based event at least seven (7) days before the first session, Travis Audubon will offer a full refund less a $5.00 administrative fee that helps defray our costs. If the registrant withdraws less than seven (7) days before the first session, no refund will be made. If Travis Audubon cancels the class, workshop, or other fee-based event, we will fully refund the tuition.