Albuquerque offers a wide range of bird habitat over a relatively small space. The Bosque ecosystem is home to riparian species, while the city provides habitat for more adaptive urban birds, and the Sandia Mountains provide a home to higher elevation species.
Hundreds of resident and migratory birds settle in Albuquerque, according to the City of Albuquerque website.
Albuquerque is one of 31 Urban Bird Treaty cities across the United States. UBT cities partner with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conserve birds and bird habitat, as well as provide educational and recreational opportunities in urban areas, according to the FWS website.
The FWS highlights the Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge as one of Albuquerque’s successes in bird conservation.
The refuge is considered to be one of the “most ambitious urban conservation projects in the nation,” according to the FWS.
In addition to Valle de Oro, birds can choose from many open spaces in Albuquerque that provide habitat, including the Bachechi Open Space, Rio Grande Nature Center State Park and even the University of New Mexico’s campus.
The Bachechi Open Space is one of 17 Bernalillo County Open Space properties, according to the Bernalillo County website. The space offers wetland habitat, which attracts geese, ducks and herons.
The Rio Grande Nature Center State Park provides habitat for over 300 species of birds, according to its website. During this time of year, sandhill cranes find food in the fields, and spotted towhee and duck species gather by feeders at the pond.
UNM’s main campus hosts a total of 212 species of birds at different times throughout the year, according to Birding Hotspots. Even with the current Duck Pond renovation, trees and green space provide habitat for robins and roadrunners.
Leila Chapa is the social media editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at socialmedia@dailylobo.com or on X @lchapa06
Paloma Chapa is the multimedia editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at multimedia@dailylobo.com or on X @paloma_chapa88
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PHOTO STORY: A Mother’s Day celebration at El Vado Motel
May 8Mother’s Day celebrations started early at El Vado Motel with the “In Her Mom Era” Mother’s Day Market, filling their courtyard with homegoods, food, jewelry and crafts from local businesses, on Saturday, May 2. The event welcomed all ages with free entry. For some guests, the market served as the perfect spot to spend a laidback day with family or find those special, last-minute gifts for Mother’s Day. Visitors had a variety of choices available for food and drinks, as the market hosted vendors with a matcha bar, pastries and michoacana snacks. Live music was performed throughout the market, by artists Anything But That Band and Gilbert Uribe, who are both local to Albuquerque. Lexis Lovato is a beat reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @lovatolexis
Union members gather for May Day on Civic Plaza
May 4Correction: The following quote was inaccurately attributed to Amy Hulshoff: 'We’re the ones that make the university run, we need the financial support to focus on our studies and doing the best jobs we can as students and as educators, because we really do love our university and we wanna be able to do the best job we can, and we can’t work if we can’t eat.' Samantha Higgins, not Hulshoff, said it. The error was made in editing. As hundreds of workers and members of local union organizations gathered on Civic Plaza, the trade union anthem “Soilidarity Forever” was sung before marching in recognition of International Workers Day, which falls every year on May 1. Among the union organizations present were the United Graduate Workers of the University of New Mexico and United Academics of UNM. UNM graduate students Mark Campbell and Samantha Higgins were tabling with UGW-UNM, and said their union was at the May Day event to show solidarity with other workers and asking community members to call on UNM interim provost Barbara Rodriguez to support their demands for higher wages. “Grad workers are a part of the working class community here in Albuquerque,” Campbell said. “Workers are what makes the city run, workers are what makes the world run, and so events like this are super important to show solidarity.” UNM PhD student Amy Hulshoff expressed frustration about her minimal salary raise over seven years with an increased workload, saying that her tuition-paying undergraduate students are being “ripped off,” in her introductory art class. “(My students) are supposedly paying the same that they would get from a tenured professor but they're getting this like, ‘half teacher,’ right?” Hulshoff said. Higgins said more financial support is needed for graduate workers to be able to focus on their studies and do the best they can as educators. "We’re the ones that make the university run, Higgins said. "We really do love our university and we wanna be able to do the best job we can, and we can’t work if we can’t eat.” Paloma Chapa is the multimedia editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at multimedia@dailylobo.com or on X @paloma_chapa88
PHOTOSTORY: Hundreds of birds find home in Albuquerque landscapes
May 4Albuquerque is home to many species of birds finding habitat across the city, whether they are nesting in the thousands of acres of public open space, finding shelter in the over 250 city park sites or making a home out of a city building or residential backyard. Over 300 bird species can be observed over the course of a year, according to Visit Albuquerque. Albuquerque invites both urban dwellers like mourning doves and wild birds like curved-billed thrashers and woodpeckers to coexist in the city’s diversity of landscapes. With the increasingly arid climate, bird baths provide relief for birds to drink water and bathe as they travel across expanses of urban landscape. Healthy soils provide habitat for insect life including earthworms, which birds hunt for food. Leila Chapa is the social media and photo editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at socialmedia@dailylobo.com or on X @lchapa06
