A bird in the hand.

• Position: Birding festivals

What do 19 states and four Canadian provinces have in common? Hint: It's worth money in the bank. Answer: Birding festivals.

States and communities are promoting their feathered friends, hoping to attract bird watchers and their money. Birders will flock to places where they can see birds that are either unique or migrating in great numbers. Birders, who tend to be affluent, make significant contributions to the economy. They have to eat, sleep, buy gas or pay for other means of transportation, and they buy extraordinary quantities of film. They pay for special excursions into the Louisiana swamps and the Gulf Coast of Texas.

In Texas, with 600 species of birds, studies have shown that tourism is a $23 billion business, likely to outstrip oil and gas and agriculture by the next century. Hunting and fishing and wildlife recreation brought in $3.6 billion in 1993. The economic impact of birdwatchers along the upper Texas coast was estimated at $4 million to $6 million in 1992. One small bird, the yellow-green vireo alone is thought to bring in at least $100,000 per year. (Yes, avid birders will get on a plane to see just one bird for their life list.) Nebraska's sandhill cranes brought in an estimated $1.26 million in 1991, a figure that is increasing by 20 percent a year, according to the state magazine Nebraskaland.

What do states do to attract birders? Texas heads the list for the most birding festivals and also has an official birding trail. In Arizona there's a hot line to call if you are looking for a special bird for your life list. Local and county governments in Mississippi have set aside stretches of beautiful beach and built viewing platforms for the public so terns can nest unmolested. Nebraska protects and maintains its Platte River...