Posted on May 10, 2019
Birds are amazing!
Migrating birds find their way between summer and winter homes thousands of miles apart. The Northern Wheatear (right) weighs less than an ounce (25 grams) but travels about 9,000 miles from the North American Arctic to sub-Saharan Africa!
And the Arctic Tern, below, which weighs about 3.5 ounces (100 grams), flies literally halfway around the world, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, twice a year!
Some migrating flights are non-stop.
Bar-tailed godwits (seen here at the left) fly more than a quarter of the way around the world - without stopping! They don't even glide - they beat their wings for 8 to 9 days straight, covering about 7,000 miles!
Some migrating birds cross seemingly impossible barriers. Bar-headed geese (below) fly over the Himalaya Mountains twice a year - a feat that requires them to go as high as 9,000 meters!
Some birds seem to know how to migrate by "instinct," and they find their way using the positions of the sun and stars, sensing magnetic north, and probably other mechanisms.
Other birds have to learn migration routes from their parents - probably learning the landscape as we humans might. Geese, cranes, and swans are all dependent on parental teaching.
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| Some birds who have been raised by humans, and imprinted on humans, have to be taught migration routes - by humans! |
Today, celebrate migratory birds!!
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