
AVA COLLECTION 2023
MIGRATION
FLYWAYS OF THE AMERICAS
SPONSORED BY
More than 30 artists donated their artwork inspired by the migratory birds of the Americas for the AVA Collection & Silent Auction 2023 “MIGRATION: Flyways of the Americas” which will be exhibited on October 27 at the terrace of the Frost Museum with the generous support of AUDUBON, one of the oldest and most respected environmental organizations in the world dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats.
Collection curated by Adriana Meneses and Alex Brahim
Scan or click to access the online auction:

THE FLYWAYS
The flyways that birds use to migrate from North America to the south form a captivating network of avian invisible highways, spanning vast distances and diverse landscapes. These migratory routes serve as vital conduits for millions of birds seeking respite from harsh winters and abundant resources in the south. There are four major north-south flyways in North America: the Pacific Flyway, the Central Flyway, the Mississippi Flyway and the Atlantic Flyway.
These flyways are nature's grand highways, connecting continents, ecosystems, and hearts. They serve as lifelines for countless species, connecting breeding grounds to wintering sites and providing a glimpse into the awe-inspiring phenomenon of migration. The flyways demonstrate the remarkable instinctual drive of birds to seek better opportunities and exemplify the intricate interplay between nature's landscapes and these winged creatures.
Every year, millions of birds embark on this perilous journey, and many of them do not survive the long flights or the challenges they face in unfamiliar territories. However, this annual migration is a testament to the resilience and adaptability of birds and a marvel of nature that continues to fascinate and inspire us.
MIGRACIÓN
Pablo Neruda
Todo el día una línea y otra línea,
un escuadrón de plumas,
un navío
palpitaba en el aire,
atravesaba
el pequeño infinito
de la ventana desde donde busco,
interrogo, trabajo, acecho, aguardo.
La torre de la arena
y el espacio marino
se unen allí, resuelven
el canto, el movimiento.
Encima se abre el cielo.
Entonces así fue: rectas, agudas,
palpitantes, pasaron
hacia dónde? Hacia el Norte, hacia el Oeste,
hacia la claridad,
hacía la estrella,
hacia el peñón de soledad y sal
donde el mar desbarata sus relojes.
Era un ángulo de aves
dirigidas
aquella latitud de hierro y nieve
que avanzaba
sin tregua
en su camino rectilíneo:
era la devorante rectitud
de una flecha evidente,
los números del cielo que viajaban
a procrear formados
por imperioso amor y geometría.
Yo me empeñé en mirar hasta perder
los ojos y no he visto
sino el orden del vuelo,
la multitud del ala contra el viento:
vi la serenidad multiplicada
por aquel hemisferio transparente
cruzado por la oscura decisión
de aquellas aves en el firmamento.
No vi sino el camino.
Todo siguió celeste.
Pero en la muchedumbre de las aves
rectas a su destino
una bandada y otra dibujaban
victorias
triangulares
unidas por la voz de un solo vuelo,
por la unidad del fuego,
por la sangre,
por la sed, por el hambre,
por el frío,
por el precario día que lloraba
antes de ser tragado por la noche,
por la erótica urgencia de la vida:
la unidad de los pájaros
volaba
hacia las desdentadas costas negras,
peñascos muertos, islas amarillas,
donde el sol dura más que su jornada
y en el cálido mar se desarrolla
el pabellón plural de las sardinas.
En la piedra asaltada
por los pájaros
se adelantó el secreto:
piedra, humedad, estiércol, soledad,
fermentarán y bajo el sol sangriento
nacerán arenosas criaturas
que alguna vez regresarán volando
hacia la huracanada luz del frío,
hacia los pies antárticos de Chile.
Ahora cruzan, pueblan la distancia
moviendo apenas en la luz las alas
como si en un latido las unieran,
vuelan sin desprenderse
del cuerpo migratorio
que en tierra se divide
y se dispersa.
Sobre el agua, en el aire,
el ave innumerable va volando,
la embarcación es una,
la nave transparente
construye la unidad con tantas alas,
con tantos ojos hacia el mar abiertos
que es una sola paz la que atraviesa
y sólo un ala inmensa se desplaza.
Ave del mar, espuma migratoria,
ala del Sur, del Norte, ala de ola,
racimo desplegado por el vuelo,
multiplicado corazón hambriento,
llegarás, ave grande, a desgranar
el collar de los huevos delicados
que empolla el viento y nutren las arenas
hasta que un nuevo vuelo multiplica
otra vez vida, muerte, desarrollo,
gritos mojados, caluroso estiércol,
y otra vez a nacer, a partir, lejos
del páramo y hacia otro páramo.
Lejos
de aquel silencio, huid, aves del frío
hacia un vasto silencio rocalloso
y desde el nido hasta el errante número,
flechas del mar, dejadme
la húmeda gloria del transcurso,
la permanencia insigne de las plumas
que nacen, mueren, duran y palpitan
creando pez a pez su larga espada,
crueldad contra crueldad la propia luz
y a contraviento y contramar, la vida.


What could be more Panamerican than these migratory birds?
the artists
30 migratory birds of the americas

























(SLIDE AND CLICK for more info of each bird)

Baltimore Oriole
Baltimore Orioles spend summer and winter in entirely different ranges. From early April to late May, flocks arrive in eastern and central North America to breed from Louisiana through central Canada. They start to leave as early as July for wintering grounds in Florida, the Caribbean, Central America, and the northern tip of South America.


Kentucky Warbler
The Kentucky Warbler spends summer in the central and eastern United States, often ranging as far north as Wisconsin to Pennsylvania. Come fall and winter this bird will migrate back to the Yucatán Peninsula and the many islands of the Caribbean, flying non-stop across the Gulf of Mexico.


Orchard Oriole
Orchard Orioles fly from eastern North America to wintering grounds in Mexico through northern South America. They spend less time on breeding grounds than other orioles, arriving by late May and departing as early as mid-July. Orchard Orioles migrate north late in the spring and head southward early, with some returning to their wintering grounds as early as mid-July.


Bobolink
The Bobolink is one of the world’s most impressive songbird migrants, traveling some 12,500 miles to and from southern South America every year. Throughout its lifetime, it may travel the equivalent of 4 or 5 times around the circumference of the earth. A migrating Bobolink can orient itself with the earth’s magnetic field, thanks to iron oxide in bristles of its nasal cavity and in tissues around the olfactory bulb and nerve.


Swallow-tailed Kite
Swallow-tailed Kites from the U.S. migrate to South America. Migration is early in both spring and fall, with Florida birds arriving February-March, departing August-September. Some migrate around Gulf of Mexico but most Florida birds apparently cross Caribbean; their migration is poorly known.


Wood Thrush
Twice a year, Wood Thrushes cross the Gulf of Mexico in a single night’s flight. They spend the fall and winter in Central America. They return north in spring 2 to 6 times faster on a route that's generally somewhat farther west. Males arrive on breeding grounds several days before females.


Indigo Bunting
Indigo Buntings fly about 1,200 miles each way between breeding grounds in eastern North America and wintering areas from southern Florida to northern South America. Indigo Buntings migrate at night, using the stars for guidance. The birds possess an internal clock that enables them to continually adjust their angle of orientation to a star—even as that star moves through the night sky.


Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Rose-breasted Grosbeaks fly from North American breeding grounds to Central and northern South America. Most of them fly across the Gulf of Mexico in a single night, although some migrate over land around the Gulf. Grosbeaks that winter in Panama and northern South America tend to be from eastern parts of the breeding range, while those wintering in Mexico and Central America tend to be from western parts.


Blackpoll Warbler
Blackpoll Warblers are long-distance athletes and they hold the record for the longest overwater flight for a songbird. During the fall, these half-ounce warblers fly nonstop for up to 3 days, covering on average over 1,800 miles over the Atlantic Ocean to reach their wintering grounds in Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, and northern South America.


Common Nighthawk
Common Nighthawks migrate at all hours of the day in large flocks, on one of the longest migration routes of any North American bird. Most travel over land through Mexico and Central America, although many do pass through Florida and Cuba, flying over the Gulf to reach their wintering grounds in southern South America. Common Nighthawks are among the last migrants to return to their breeding grounds in spring.


Red-eyed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireos leave the U.S. and Canada each fall to spend winters in the Amazon basin of South America. Western populations typically swing east before joining common flight paths south. The Red-eyed Vireo's magnetic compass guides migration between continents. Fatter birds head across the Gulf, while leaner birds hug the coastline or travel inland around the Gulf of Mexico.


Chimney Swift
Chimney Swifts migrate to South America each winter flying across the Gulf of Mexico or skirting it along the Texas coast (a route they’re more likely to take in spring than fall). Many swifts use one of three distinct flyways: the Atlantic coast, the east side of the Appalachians, and the Mississippi River. They fly high in the sky during the day and roost in chimneys at night.


Olive-sided Flycatcher
Due to their long migration, Olive-sided Flycatchers arrive on breeding grounds late in spring and may depart again as early as August. Of all the flycatcher species that breed in the United States, Olive-sided Flycatcher has the longest migration, with some migrating between central Alaska and Bolivia, a distance of 7,000 miles.


Whimbrel
A captured female Whimbrel in 2009 was fitted with a satellite transmitter. Over the next three years, researchers monitored it for more than 50,000 miles traveling back and forth between its breeding area in Canada and her wintering site in British Virgin Islands. Some migrating Whimbrels make a nonstop overwater flight of 2,500 miles from southern Canada or New England to South America.


Hudsonian Godwit
After breeding, the Hudsonian Godwit undertakes a migration from the subarctic to southern South America, in which it apparently makes nonstop flights of several thousand miles. Because of their far-northern breeding grounds and swift migratory passage through North America, Hudsonian Godwits were thought to be extremely rare until the 1940s.


American Golden-Plover
Golden-plovers fly fast—studies using geolocators found the birds averaged 30+ mph and sometimes achieved ground speeds of over 80 mph during their long over-ocean flights. Like many shorebirds, adult American Golden-Plovers leave the Arctic in early summer, leaving their young behind. The juveniles (only a few months old) set off on migration in late summer or fall—finding their way to South America on their own.


Scarlet Tanager
Twice a year, Scarlet Tanagers fly across the Gulf of Mexico between their breeding grounds in eastern North America and their wintering grounds in South America. They usually migrate at night. Individuals that spend the winter farther south migrate to breeding grounds later, and in more synchronized bursts, than individuals wintering further north.


Semipalmated Sandpiper
Some Semipalmated Sandpipers from eastern populations probably fly nonstop across the ocean from New England to South America (some 2,500 miles), powered by extensive fat reserves. Semipalmated Sandpipers migrating through the Bay of Fundy, Canada, used to spend much of their time fighting over feeding space—and as a result it often took 2 weeks to fatten up before continuing their migration.


Golden-winged Warbler
Golden-winged Warblers migrate south mainly through a corridor of states east of the Mississippi River and west of the Appalachians, with peak movement in September. They begin to return on spring migration in April, during which month they are still regularly recorded in Costa Rica as well as in Texas and Kentucky.
