Ruby-throated hummingbirds, Baltimore orioles, rose-breasted grosbeaks and blackburian warblers are a few of the species birders expect to spot during this weekend’s spring birding events at Tara Wildlife, a 17,000-acre wildlife and hunting preserve northwest of Vicksburg near Eagle Lake.

“This is a special time of year because of the spring migration,” said Gilbert Rose, Tara president. “There’s a lot of birds making their way north to summer breeding areas, and this is one of the main flyways in the country.”

Tara Wildlife was recently named a top-10 spring birding venue in the country by USA Today. The high floodwaters from the Mississippi River have somewhat altered original plans for birders at the event, but Rose said bookings are nonetheless strong and the birding will not be compromised.

“We’ve got a slightly different twist this year in that we’ll be doing a lot of tours by canoe,” he said. “We had planned on incorporating a canoe trip down the river for this year’s event, but it’s turned out we’ll be able to canoe through a lot of our land inside the levee, which has about 7 to 8 feet of water over it.”

Birding tours on Tara’s open-air buses will be limited this year, said Rose, out of consideration for some of the other animals taking refuge from the flood on dry areas of the Tara preserve.

“We don’t want to disturb the woods too much because that’s the only sanctuary many of the animals have had during the flood,” he said. “We’ll do some bus tours, but the canoe tours will be the main event.”

Canoe trips will be guided by Clarksdale resident John Ruskey, owner of the Quapaw Canoe Company, which offers wilderness expeditions on the lower Mississippi River. On Saturday evening, journalist Danny Heitman will be the guest speaker. Heitman has recently written a new book titled “A Summer of Birds,” which examines John James Audubon’s summer at Oakley Plantation in Louisiana’s West Feliciana Parish. Heitman will be in Vicksburg Saturday signing books at Lorelei Books beginning at 2 p.m.

Registration is at 3 p.m. Friday, followed by a social hour and dinner. Events continue until Sunday evening. A limited number of weekend packages are available. Those who don’t have time to take in the entire weekend may participate in daily canoe expeditions, birding tours and evening events.

“We really encourage beginning birders to come out and participate,” said Ruskey. “A lot of people hear birding and think, ‘Oh, I’m out of my league.’ That’s not the case out here. This is an event where both avid birders and beginners will meet some interesting people, see a lot of birds and have a good time.”

If you goTara Wildlife, in association with Audubon Mississippi, will host its second spring birding weekend beginning Friday and wrapping up Sunday. Activities include open-air bus tours, guided canoe trips and guest speakers. A base fee of $270 covers lodging and meals for those who want a private room for the weekend, with those sharing a room to pay $195. There’s an additional charge of $10 for daily guided birding tours, $20 for evening entertainment and $50 for the canoe trip. Birders not registered for the entire weekend of events may participate in single activities during the afternoons and evenings. Tara is a 17,000-acre wildlife hunting preserve near Eagle Lake north of Vicksburg. The route from Vicksburg is north on U.S. 61 to Onward, drive west on Mississippi 1, then drive south on Mississippi 465. Registration and more information is available by calling Tara at 601-279-4261, or online at www.tarawildlife.com