Migration of Birds (1950)Lincoln, Frederick Charles
Science
Migration of Birds (1950)
Lincoln, Frederick Charles
Birds; Birds -- Migration
Many similar cases might be mentioned, such as the black-throated
blue warblers, which are still observed in the mountains of Haiti in
the middle of May, when others of this species are en route through
North Carolina to breeding territory in New England or have even
reached that region. Redstarts and yellow warblers, evidently the
more southern breeders, are seen returning southward on the northern
coast of South America just about the time that the earliest of
those breeding in the North reach Florida on their way to winter
quarters.
=Nocturnal and diurnal migration=
When one recalls that most birds appear to be more or less helpless
in the dark, it seems remarkable that many should select the night
hours for extended travel. Among those that do, however, are the
great hosts of shore birds, rails, flycatchers, orioles, most of
the great family of sparrows, the warblers, vireos, and thrushes,
and in fact, the majority of small birds. That it is common to find
woods and fields on one day almost barren of bird life, and on the
following day filled with sparrows, warblers, and thrushes, would
indicate the arrival of migrants during the night. Sportsmen sitting
in their "blinds" frequently observe the passage of flocks of ducks
and geese, but great numbers of these birds also pass through at
night, the clarion call of the Canada goose, or the conversational
gabbling of a flock of ducks being common night sounds in spring and
fall in many parts of the country. The sibilant, nocturnal calls of
the upland plover or Bartramian sandpiper and of other shore birds
during their spring and fall flights form vivid memories in the minds
of many students of migration. Observations made with telescopes
focused on the full moon have shown processions of birds, one
observer estimating that birds passed his point of observation at the
rate of 9,000 an hour, which gives some indication of the numbers of
birds that are in the air during some of the nights when migration
is at its height. While the steady night-long passage of migratory
birds has been recorded, the bulk of the flocks pass during the
earlier hours of the evening and toward daylight in the morning, the
periods from 8 o'clock to midnight and from 4 to 6 a. m. seeming to
be favorite times for nocturnal flight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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