A red-winged blackbird takes in the view Saturday from a branchat North Mountain Park in Ashland.

Starlings, acorn woodpeckers, lesser goldfinches, orioles and red-winged blackbirds — those were just some of the 20-plus bird species spotted in Ashland’s North Mountain Park Saturday morning for Rogue Valley Bird Day.

The local event celebrates the mass migration of billions of birds northward during the spring months, with organizers providing bird walks, education booths and other activities and inform Rogue Valley residents about the migratory avians free of charge.

“Anybody can come at any ability level; we have binoculars to loan and anybody can enjoy birds today,” said Jennifer Aguayo, coordinator for the North Mountain Park Nature Center.

Rogue Valley Bird Day is put on by the Ashland Parks and Recreation Commission with other local bird organizations coordinating and organizing aspects of the event.

The partner organizations include the Klamath Bird Observatory, Jackson County Library Services, the Rogue Valley Audubon Society, Pollinator Project Rogue Valley and other groups, and the event is entirely volunteer-run.

Bird Day brought out nature lovers from kids to seniors.

“I’ve never really experienced bird watching but I’m very much interested in all of the aspects of it,” said Juana Gudino, taking a bird walk with Chris Loeffler.

On her favorite she’d seen so far, “the red-winged blackbird, it’s beautiful and I just love the different variations of colors out here,” Gudino added.

Gudino and Loeffler were attending the bird day event for the first time.

“We were looking for things to do outside and it showed up in the list of things happening in the area, so it felt like a nice excuse to spend a couple hours in nature,” Loeffler said.

“I want to do the bird call contest,” said 10-year-old Lillian Nelson, visiting with her mother.

“There was one we just saw and it had pretty colors,” Nelson said, referencing either a downy woodpecker or an acorn woodpecker.

Some of the day’s activities included bird walks, bird-calling contests and more.

“The bird walks kind of make up the core of our day; we just want to get everyone walking and out in nature, out looking at birds where they are and just enjoying the experience of seeing birds and being alive,” Aguayo said.

Outside of the bird watching tours happening every 30 minutes or so, partner organizations assembled close to a dozen booths around the Ashland park, providing activities, stations and other entertainment for little ones and fully grown adults alike.

“We have feather painting … it’s just a great way for kids to touch a real part of a bird in a creative way, which is really fun for them and engaging,” said Elva Manquera, science, communications outreach and diversity, equity and inclusion manager for the Klamath Bird Observatory. “Today, in celebration of World Migratory Bird Day, we’re just educating people about the research that we do.”

On her favorite bird, Manquera decided on the acorn woodpecker for the species’ unique familial behaviors.

“They’re one of the only woodpeckers that lives in a family unit, so previous offspring will help take care of the next brood from the parents and they live in big units, gather acorns together and they store them in snags,” Manquera said. “They have territory, so they fight other (woodpecker) families, so it’s just a fun, dynamic bird to watch.”

Leading tours through North Mountain Park’s nature-observing trails, longtime birder and volunteer Vince Zauskey was pointing out many of the migratory avians passing through Ashland on their southward journey.

“I always like to see the migratory birds, because most of them are really colorful and I try to identify a lot of birds by song or call, so a couple of my favorite ones that are particularly migratory that show up in the park should be the Bullock’s oriole, western tanager and yellow-breasted chat,” Zauskey said.

He is a member of the Rogue Valley Audubon Society, Klamath Bird Observatory as well as being a volunteer at North Mountain Park.

Zauskey was introduced to the world of birding — the hobby of observing the avians in their natural habitat — back in 1971 while taking a class at Southern Oregon University.

“I’ve been pretty hooked on bird watching ever since then, I really enjoy it,” Zauskey said, adding, “I really like nature and so I like to identify things.”

Outside of Rogue Valley Bird Day, Zauskey and other volunteers will host monthly bird watching tours at the park during the summer months of June, July, August and September.

North Mountain Park is almost entirely run on volunteer support, with many locals tending to the natural setting within the park for visitors to enjoy.

“North Mountain Park is the most special park in all of the Rogue Valley as far as I’m concerned,” Aguayo said. “We let it be a little bit wild, but it is managed in a way that people might not notice.”

A primary focus for Rogue Valley Bird Day organizers was to provide an all-inclusive event for people of all abilities, budgets and ages.

“We have some options to go around and take a hike in the park, but we also have some ADA-compliant birding options; we actually have this nice birding path that’s paved all the way up,” Aguayo said.

North Mountain Park relies on the support of volunteers, and Ashland Parks and Recreation is always looking for more helpers. For those interested in volunteering, visit ashland.or.us/Page.asp?NavID=12978.

To learn more about the Klamath Bird Observatory, visit klamathbird.org.

For more information on Rogue Valley Bird Day, visit roguevalleybirdday.net.