Nuthatch
PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
that you can trust their amazing navigational prowess on
their return flight. Remember, feeding birds year ‘round
can make your backyard a valued rest stop on their
lengthy journey.
Offer these travelers a variety of food: seed, suet and
seed cakes. Keep your feeders full, maintain fresh water
in a bird bath, and keep an eye on the skies in anticipation of the flight home for the spring season.
SEPTEMBER 2016
Hundreds of thousands of birds, sometimes millions,
migrate across North America: warblers, nuthatches,
wrens, vireos, orioles, tanagers, owls, swallows and
many others. In fact, most of the birds that we look for as
harbingers of spring all travel under the relative safety of
darkness on any given night during both the spring and
fall seasons.
In the spring, migrating birds make their way from
warmer summer climates where they’ve spent the winter,
heading ever northward to breeding territories across the
United States and Canada with the intention of staking
out a good territory and finding a mate. Ornithologists
estimate 5 billion birds migrate in North America alone.
Likewise in the fall, the inverse is true. With the onset
of colder weather many of the birds we enjoyed during
the warm weather will be moving out of the area to
enjoy the warm weather further south. Our hummingbirds, Painted Buntings, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers,
Summer Tanagers, and Barn Swallows are some we will
miss seeing during the
colder winter months.
However, we will gain
the American Goldfinch,
Dark-Eyed Juncos, Red
Breasted Nuthatch, Ruby
Crowned Kinglet and
even the Gold and Bald
Eagle just to name a
few, during these cold
winter months. Keep
on the lookout and
you may see Baltimore
Orioles, Blue Grosbeaks,
Yellow Headed
Blackbirds, and Ospreys
who fly through our
area on their way further
south.
Night flight is good
Barn Swallow
for ‘powered’ fliers,
birds that flap rather than glide, and the majority of land
birds migrate this way.
Traveling at night is easier and safer . . .
The air is generally smoother. Less turbulent skies
when the sun is down makes flying easier, thereby helping birds maintain their course.
The cooler temperatures conserve birds’ energy. A
migrating bird produces quite a lot of excess heat that
needs to be released from its body, and it does so through
its un-feathered legs. The cooler the air around the bird,
the quicker that heat can be released.
Airborne predators are less likely to be hunting at
night.
Food is easier to find during daylight hours. Night
migrating birds will load up on calories during the day to
help regain weight lost during their night flight.
While this night migration is largely unseen, it is
not unheard. Each migrant bird species gives a unique
flight call while flying, some as brief as 20 milliseconds.
Scientists call these chirps and tweets Night Flight Calls,
or NFCs, and while barely discernible by humans, scientists have been monitoring and analyzing this overhead
communication to help identify the species and their
migration patterns. It’s thought that NFCs help flocks of
birds stay together while they navigate through the darkness.
Clearly, birds do not journey forth ‘on a wing and a
prayer.’ They take clues from geographical landmarks,
sunlight, night stars, environmental sounds and even wind
direction. Most birds use more than one navigational
system, and they almost always reach their intended
destinations.
For migratory birds, especially long distance migrants,
timing is everything. They know to time their travels to
get them to their destination after severe weather has
passed, and when a reasonable supply of food is assured.
When colder weather arrives and you realize the lovely birdcalls have left your area, be consoled in knowing
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