Migration of Birds (1979)Lincoln, Frederick Charles
Science
Migration of Birds (1979)
Lincoln, Frederick Charles
Birds; Birds -- Migration
Formerly, it was thought most North America landbirds migrated
to Central America via the Florida coast, then crossed to Cuba,
and finally made the short flight from the western tip of Cuba to
Yucatan. A glance at the map would suggest this as a most natural
route, but, as a matter of fact, it is practically deserted except
for a few swallows and shorebirds or an occasional landbird
storm-driven from its normal course. What actually happens in the
fall is that many of the birds breeding east of the Appalachian
Mountains travel parallel to the seacoast in a more or less
southwesterly direction and, apparently maintaining this same general
course from northwestern Florida, cross the Gulf of Mexico to the
coastal regions of eastern Mexico. They thus join migrants from
farther inland in using route No. 4 (Fig. 18).
Routes used by the Atlantic brant merit some detail because their
flight paths were long misunderstood. These birds winter on the
Atlantic coast, chiefly at Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, but depending
upon the severity of the season and the food available, south also
to North Carolina. Their breeding grounds are in the Canadian arctic
archipelago and on the coasts of Greenland. According to the careful
studies of Lewis (1937), the main body travels northward in spring
along the coast to the Bay of Fundy, overland to Northumberland
Strait, which separates Prince Edward Island from mainland New
Brunswick and Nova Scotia. A minor route appears to lead northward
from Long Island Sound by way of the Housatonic and Connecticut River
Valleys to the St. Lawrence River.
After spending the entire month of May feeding and resting in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, the eastern segment of the brant population
resumes its journey by departing overland from the Bay of Seven
Island area. The eastern and larger segment of the population appears
to fly almost due north to Ungava Bay and from there to nesting
grounds, probably on Baffin Island and Greenland. The smaller segment
travels a route slightly north of west to the southeastern shores
of James Bay, although east of that area some of the flocks take a
more northwesterly course by descending the Fort George River to
reach the eastern shore of James Bay. Upon their arrival at either
of these two points on James Bay, the brants of this western segment
turn northward and proceed along eastern Hudson Bay to their breeding
grounds in the Canadian Arctic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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