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‘Dude, that’s 250’: Meet the 19-year-old Dallasite with big birding goals

The Highland Park High alumnus got serious about birding in 2022 and embarked on a challenge to see the most species in Dallas County in 2023.

Kalder Korte had been birding for almost seven hours already. His eyes were strained from the bright day. He walked into a deceptively deep puddle earlier, and now one of his pant legs was damp, his socks were soaked, and his shoes made squishing noises as he trudged around Garland’s Audubon Park.

But Korte was hyper-focused, intently listening for the nasally, goofy call of a red-breasted nuthatch.

It was mid-December, he was one species short, and time was running out to meet his goal for the year.

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His ‘big year’

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Korte, 19, grew up in Dallas hiking, fishing and herping (the act of looking for reptiles and amphibians). He graduated to birding about three years ago. He was at cross country practice at White Rock Lake when he saw a bird he couldn’t identify. He realized his ecological knowledge was lacking and resolved to learn more about birds. In 2022, he decided to get serious about birding.

For 2023, Korte set out on his own “big year,” a personal challenge to identify as many species of birds as possible within the year. More specifically, he wanted to log 250 unique species in Dallas County. He went out almost every weekend with his binoculars, camera, spotting scope and a whole lot of determination.

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Birdwatcher Kalder Korte, walks up a trail as he scouts for birds around Harry S Moss Park,...
Birdwatcher Kalder Korte, walks up a trail as he scouts for birds around Harry S Moss Park, on Saturday, March 23, 2024 in Dallas. Korte, a Dallas teen was the top eBirder in Dallas County last year. He logged the most bird species observed in Dallas County on the eBird app/website. (Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer)

“I’ve always loved the outdoors, almost to an unnatural extent,” Korte said and chuckled. “A lot of people say I have kind of grandpa-like tendencies, especially with my birding.”

His parents instilled in him an admiration for nature and wildlife. Even so, he knows birding is a bit of an unusual hobby for a young person. To him, it’s about more than just looking at birds.

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“A lot of people don’t think this matters. But it should matter,” he said.

A Bluebird sits on a branch of a tree, spotted by birdwatcher Kalder Korte at Harry S Moss...
A Bluebird sits on a branch of a tree, spotted by birdwatcher Kalder Korte at Harry S Moss Park, on Saturday, March 23, 2024 in Dallas. Korte, a Dallas teen was the top eBirder in Dallas County last year. He logged the most bird species observed in Dallas County on the eBird app/website. (Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer)

By recording their observations, birders can help scientists monitor bird populations and devise conservation strategies.

North America’s overall bird population has been in decline for decades. In half a century, nearly 30% of the population — about 3 billion breeding adults — was decimated, according to watershed research published in the academic journal Science in 2019. The paper alarmed scientists and wildlife enthusiasts across the continent.

Kevin McAbee, a species coordinator at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, said the decline is due to human-caused changes in environment.

“As we change landscapes and develop the land, we’re taking their habitats away,” McAbee said. “As we put more pollution into the environment and change the atmosphere, we’re making it harder for birds to survive. We’re learning that our impacts can be monumental.”

Many ornithologists and bird lovers refer to the feathered creatures as metaphorical “canaries in a coal mine.”

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Tania Homayoun is an ornithologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Nongame and Rare Species Program. She said birds are more sensitive to changing environmental factors than humans, so environmental warning signs can be seen in birds before the same issues affect humans.

“When there are impacts to them, it is a red flag for human communities to start paying attention,” Homayoun said.

Birds already play important roles in ecosystems — pest and disease control, pollination, seed distribution and more.

A decline in flying insect-eating birds is related to the concerning global decline in insects, said Noah Matson, the deputy assistant director of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Migratory Bird Program. Insects act as pollinators, and without them, he said, the human economy and food system would collapse.

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Birds are also directly signaling the severity of climate change, Matson said. Research shows some birds are migrating earlier and changing their migration paths due to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns.

A part of something bigger

Korte became an obsessive — or maybe, he said, “focused” — birder last year, especially during peak migration in the spring. He’d bird for an hour during his off-campus lunch breaks. He’d bird after school, sometimes instead of doing homework. When the weekends rolled around, he’d bird almost all day.

Birdwatcher Kalder Korte, looks through the binocular to spot birds at Harry S Moss Park, on...
Birdwatcher Kalder Korte, looks through the binocular to spot birds at Harry S Moss Park, on Saturday, March 23, 2024 in Dallas. Korte, a Dallas teen was the top eBirder in Dallas County last year. He logged the most bird species observed in Dallas County on the eBird app/website. (Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer)
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Birding has deepened friendships and guided his travel plans. Cooper Daniels, Korte’s friend and frequent birding partner, traveled in the fall to Fort Collins, Colo., to visit Korte at college. He’s a Colorado State University freshman majoring in environmental engineering. The two made sure to fit birding into the trip.

Korte and Daniels went down to Corpus Christi this winter, where they observed more than 200 species. They even caught a glimpse of a cattle tyrant — a medium sized gray and yellow flycatcher that typically resides in countries across South America — during its first documented appearance in the U.S. They were so preoccupied with birding on their trip that one day, they could only spare time for Dr Peppers and oatmeal cream pies for lunch.

Birdwatcher Kalder Korte, takes a photo of a mourning dove at Harry S Moss Park, on...
Birdwatcher Kalder Korte, takes a photo of a mourning dove at Harry S Moss Park, on Saturday, March 23, 2024 in Dallas. Korte, a Dallas teen was the top eBirder in Dallas County last year. He logged the most bird species observed in Dallas County on the eBird app/website. (Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer)

Korte also observed birds in Dallas County that are uncommon for the area, such as the reddish egret, red-headed woodpecker, Costa’s hummingbird, Glaucous gull and American bittern.

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When he and Daniels spotted the bittern — described by ornithologists as “usually secretive and difficult to see” — the two young men hugged, hooted and hollered. It was the most excited he’d ever been to see a bird.

About 96.3 million people in the U.S. are birdwatchers, according to a recent national survey by the Fish & Wildlife Service. That’s about a quarter of the American population. It’s a “tremendous increase” from the previous report, said Matson. A large part of the increase can be attributed to the boom in popularity during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many birders, like Korte and Daniels, keep track of their observations on eBird, an online database managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology where hundreds of thousands of users across the world submit details of their bird observations — species, number of birds, location, photos and even audio files of birds’ vocalizations.

Matson, of the Fish & Wildlife Service, said he’s a fan of the eBird app.

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“It encourages you to [bird] more and better, and to feel like you’re part of something bigger,” he said. “It’s not just getting streaks in this gamified piece of it, but you know that your information is being used for science, so you’re contributing to science by plugging in your observations. So it’s like a triple whammy.”

A Northern Flicker sits on a branch of a tree, spotted by birdwatcher Kalder Korte at Harry...
A Northern Flicker sits on a branch of a tree, spotted by birdwatcher Kalder Korte at Harry S Moss Park, on Saturday, March 23, 2024 in Dallas. Korte, a Dallas teen was the top eBirder in Dallas County last year. He logged the most bird species observed in Dallas County on the eBird app/website. (Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer)

However, Matson said, increased participation in birding doesn’t always translate to increased advocacy for conservation efforts.

Conservation can be complex for a few reasons.

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For one, there’s the logistics of migration.

“A species that’s just in one place — you throw a park there, and you can protect it,” Matson said. “For birds, you have to protect where they spend the winter, where they breed, and all along the way.”

For another, jurisdiction can be tricky. Matson said that because property owners or local government agencies decide on land use, addressing conservation issues at the state or federal levels is difficult.

“Everyday decisions are being made that are in people’s personal interests or in companies’ interests, and not thinking about how it’s all connected to birds,” Matson said. “No one’s out there trying to destroy bird habitats. They’re making seemingly little decisions, but it’s literally death by a thousand cuts.”

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In the fight against bird population decline, Matson said one metric of success would be zero species on the Fish & Wildlife Service’s Birds of Conservation Concern list. The list identifies species that are in decline and are on the way to being considered federally endangered. The most recent version of the list recorded 269 species of high concern.

“To me, it’s not about a specific population number of any species,” Matson said. “We want to make sure that as many species have secure populations. That means we want to recover them if they’re endangered, so that they’re self-sustaining and can survive in America today.”

A blue jay takes off from a branch of a tree, spotted by birdwatcher Kalder Korte at Harry S...
A blue jay takes off from a branch of a tree, spotted by birdwatcher Kalder Korte at Harry S Moss Park, on Saturday, March 23, 2024 in Dallas. Korte, a Dallas teen was the top eBirder in Dallas County last year. He logged the most bird species observed in Dallas County on the eBird app/website. (Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer)

Matson said more policies protecting North American bird habitats are needed. He said he’s optimistic based on the success of policies to protect and restore wetlands, citing the milestone 2019 paper that reported a decline in all bird species except those dependent on wetlands.

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“That shows a way forward, that there is hope if we get that energy around other groups of birds, other habitat types,” Matson said.

Additionally, continuing to address broader environmental issues, such as the climate crisis and greenhouse gas emissions, inadvertently helps birds. Matson referenced the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act as important legislation that invests in clean energy and benefits nature.

County- and municipality-level policies to reduce light at night helps birds, too. Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson issued proclamations in October 2020 and April 2022 urging businesses and residents to turn off nonessential lights at night, and a statewide push by Audubon Texas continues. About a million birds die annually from collisions in the U.S., particularly into glass buildings, especially at four stories or below, Matson said. Most birds migrate at night and lighting can disorient and exhaust them. On an individual level, people can draw blinds or put decals or paint on windows to limit light at night.

McAbee, the species coordinator, said he believes the public shares the desire to take care of the environment and its inhabitants.

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“I think we’ve turned a corner as a society to say that we want to do our best to live in harmony with wildlife, in a way that does not cause extinction,” he said, later referencing the landmark Endangered Species Act of 1973 as evidence of the sentiment.

‘Did you hear that?’

It was ringing in Korte’s ears during the day, reverberating throughout his dreams during the night. The call of the red-breasted nuthatch had been haunting Korte all week.

There was a dwindling number of species he could log in Dallas County, and he was getting desperate.

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Birdwatcher Kalder Korte, reacts after spotting a certain bird at Harry S Moss Park, on...
Birdwatcher Kalder Korte, reacts after spotting a certain bird at Harry S Moss Park, on Saturday, March 23, 2024 in Dallas. Korte, a Dallas teen was the top eBirder in Dallas County last year. He logged the most bird species observed in Dallas County on the eBird app/website. (Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer)

Korte and his friend Daniels were sitting with their feet dangling over the side of the eroded Rowlett Creek riverbank that mid-December day. After an hour, between the competing highway noise and wrens’ and cardinals’ vocalizations, he heard it.

The wacky call of a red-breasted nuthatch rang out clear as day, bouncing around from tree to tree.

Korte turned to Daniels.

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“Did you hear that? Did you hear that?” Korte asked.

“Yeah, that’s it — we got the nuthatch,” Daniels said. “Dude, that’s 250.”

Korte went on to log two more bird species in Dallas County before the end of 2023, totaling 252 and making him the No. 1 eBirder in the county.

“I made sure to tell a lot of people,” he said.

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Birdwatcher Kalder Korte, looks up on the trees to spot birds at Harry S Moss Park, on...
Birdwatcher Kalder Korte, looks up on the trees to spot birds at Harry S Moss Park, on Saturday, March 23, 2024 in Dallas. Korte, a Dallas teen was the top eBirder in Dallas County last year. He logged the most bird species observed in Dallas County on the eBird app/website. (Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer)