Bird Migrations

Directions of Bird Migrations.

      Where do birds go during the cold northern winters? You have noticed that a bout the same time early every autumn you miss their cheerful songs, and soon after the first of October only a very few are to be seen. The junco, or snowbird, the tree sparrow, the brown creeper and a very few others are bold enough to stay with us all winter. Do you throw crumbs to them when the ground is covered in snow? If you do, they will be regular visitors to your door. All others disappear. They do not leave us merely on account of cold weather, for we know some birds sty north all winter; they migrate largely for the reason that they must go where food is plentiful. Most of them would starve to death during the cold months in the north. When they return from their southern winger homes you will notice they are strong and fresh from abundant feeding in the tropics.

       Many of the birds are with us all summer, and you are acquainted with the commonest of these. There are others which pass us by every spring and go far north into Canada to spend the summer around Hudson Bay and near the Arctic Ocean. All of the local birds and those from the far north take wing in the fall and fly straight to a warm climate. Many stop around the Gulf of Mexico, others stay in Mexico, but the great majority fly into the northern part of South America, many species even crossing the equator and wintering south of the Amazon River. One bird, the yellowleg, is among the greatest travelers of them all. During summer he enjoys the climate of Northern Canada; when he is warned away by the approach of frost he flies 8,000 miles, to spend the winter down in Argentina, in the southern part of the South American continent. In the spring he starts back on the return trip of 8,000 miles; so this little fellow travels 16,000 miles a year on his migration. Snipe and plover breed near the Arctic Circle and in the fall they, too, go the southern end of South America. 

       On their trips south in the fall most birds are not noticed in their flight; some fly very high, and others go in small groups--even singly; some species are night-fliers. You can, however, note the flight of the ducks and their peculiar formation as they fly -- in the shape of a great wedge, with the leader in front. Very few birds fly continually in their migration. They often stop for days or weeks on the way, feeding wherever they find anything inviting. For instance, the bobolinks stay for weeks in the ricefields of South Carolina, where they are disliked and are called ricebirds. Hoever, some birds, like the golden plover, start on a flight from Nova Scotia over the Atlantic Ocean and for many hundreds of miles remain on the wing, resting only on the West Indies islands before reaching the shores of Brazil.

       When they return north in the spring, birds will repay watching. If you will keep a record you will find that some species will be seen in the trees in your yard during the same week year after year, and that some of them may fly straight back thousands of miles to the same nests they occupied the year before. White

• Bird migration, a perilous journey by Alyssa Klavans
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• How do birds fly over the ocean without getting tired? by Mike Fitz Explores