For those who enjoy bird watching or who would like to get outdoors for a change of scenery, bird migration has started to pick up here in central Iowa.

Jefferson bird expert Matt Wetrich says now is the perfect time to see the greatest number and diversity of bird species coming through Iowa.

“And that’s because we have things that have spent the winters in the tropics. They’ve been down all the way to Central and South America, or maybe just Mexico, or even just southern United States. So they’re going to migrate back here to raise a family in our parks, in our yards, or they’ll just be passing through for a couple weeks there in May on their way up to the Boreal Forest of Canada, or northern Minnesota, or even to the Dakotas to some of the prairie pothole areas there.”

Wetrich points out a popular bird that often comes through during this time is the Baltimore Oriole. To have them stop by your home, Wetrich says cut an orange in half and put grape jelly on it and they will stop and eat it. He suggests other ways to attract these unique visitors to your home.

“If you have a little water feature, a little dipper of sorts that you can drip water into or just even a bird bath, you’ll get a lot of birds stopping through. They need a lot of stuff we need and they’re traveling hundreds or thousands of miles and putting out a lot bit of a ‘Welcome mat’ there for them, they’ll stop by and you’ll be rewarded with some beautiful looking, brightly colored birds.”

Wetrich adds other public areas, such as Dunbar Slough, are great places for bird watching as well.