Migration of Birds (1950)Lincoln, Frederick Charles
Science
Migration of Birds (1950)
Lincoln, Frederick Charles
Birds; Birds -- Migration
A study of these facts indicates that sometimes there exists a very
definite relationship between what we may term northern and southern
groups of individuals of the same species. A supposition is that
for a species with an extensive latitudinal breeding range, and
which has a normal migration, those individuals that nest farthest
south migrate first and proceed to the southern part of the winter
range; those that occupy the central parts of the breeding range
migrate next and travel to regions in the winter range north of
those occupied by the first group; and finally the individuals
breeding farthest north are the last to start their autumn migration
and they remain farthest north during the winter. In other words,
this theory supposes that the southward movement of the species is
such that the different groups maintain their relative latitudinal
position with each other. The black and white warbler furnishes
an example. The breeding range of this bird extends west and
northwest from northern Georgia and South Carolina to New Brunswick,
extending also in a western and northwestern direction as far as
Great Bear Lake in northwestern Canada (fig. 1). It spends the
winter in southern Florida, the West Indies, central Mexico, Central
America, and northwestern South America. In the southern part of
its breeding range it is nesting in April, but those that summer in
New Brunswick do not reach their nesting grounds before the middle
of May. Therefore, about 50 days are required for these northbound
birds to cross the breeding range, and if 60 days be allowed for
nest building, egg laying, incubation, care of young, and molt, they
would not be ready to start southward before the middle of July
(fig. 2.). Then another 50-day trip south, and the earliest migrants
from the northern areas would reach the Gulf Coast in September.
But both adults and young have been observed at Key West, Fla., by
the middle of July, and on the northern coast of South America by
August 21. Since the birds at Key West were fully 500 miles south of
the breeding range, it is evident that they must have come from the
southern part of the nesting area.
[Illustration: _Figure 1._--Summer and winter homes of the black
and white warbler, a very slow migrant as the birds nesting in the
northern part of the country take 50 days to cross the breeding
range. The speed of migration is shown in figure 2. (See p. 14.)]
[Illustration: _Figure 2._--Isochronal migration lines of the black
and white warbler, showing a very slow and uniform migration. These
birds apparently advance only about 20 miles a day in crossing the
United States. (See p. 13.)]
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