Interesting Facts About Bird Migration

When people go on long journeys they use compasses and maps to make sure they will arrive the planed location. Do birds use any “instruments” when migrating to help them infallibly reach the same destination year after year?

It is known that birds orientate themselves using the position of the sun and the stars, and some scientific experiments showed that birds sense changes in the earth‘s magnetic field. Birds can also sense the smell of the sea and the sound of the waves and wind, which also help them to navigate. Bird navigation, that still cannot be fully explained, is based on a variety of senses.

Birds have one more great ability they use when go on a long trip – they can predict weather (they can sense changes in atmospheric pressure). Some experiments the scientists have conducted in order to figure out how birds react to what’s going on around them, showed that birds react to changes in atmospheric pressure between the floor and the ceiling of a laboratory. Its interesting that some birds have sensed the change before it even occurred.

Some birds, like the pigeon, have an amazing ability to detect polarized light (light waves that vibrate in one direction) as well as ultraviolet light, which they use when flying. The pigeon can also do one great thing we humans can’t – to hear infrasound that comes from ocean waves, storms, mountain winds, earthquakes… In a study conducted in the east of USA, scientists noticed the pigeons react to storm that occurs on the other side of the country! It’s clear that such a good sense of hearing help pigeons to orient during the flight. You all know the pigeons were used to carry messages in the past, and now you know why.

Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

When it comes to migration, little bird Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) flies 3.700 km (2.300 miles) finding no time to take a rest. During the flight this bird spends 86 hours flapping its wings non stop. Looking for a favorable wind, it is able to fly even up to 6000  meters above in cold heights. If we count all the “sky walks” this bird makes during the year, that would be about 16.000 km (10.000 miles).

Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea)

Absolute recorders among bird migrants is the Arctic Tern. They nest near North Pole but that doesn’t stop them to later make a journey to the other side of the world, Antarctica… and back. This incredible bird round trip of around 70,900 km (44.000 miles), which is the longest regular migration by any animal on this planet. We can say this bird is almost always on its journey. The Arctic Tern, which lives more than 20 years in average, will travel around 2.4 million km during its lifetime.

Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis)

Each autumn the Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), which lives in the north Atlantic, is ready to start about 12.800 km (8.000 miles) long journey to get to the small remote island Tristan da Cuhna located n the south Atlantic Ocean. The Northern Fulmar is about 50 cm long and has wingspan of up to one meter. It is able to flap its wings very fast for some time and then spends several hours gliding on stiff wings carried by air currents.

Arctic Warbler (Phylloscopus borealis

The Arctic Warbler nests in Alaska and when it comes to migration, the bird will have to fly its long way to get to southern south-east Asia where it will spend the winter.

Bar-Tailed Godwits (Limosa lapponica)

The bird that is known to have the longest non-stop flight of any bird migrant is Bar-tailed Godwits . It flies about 11,000 km from Alaska to New Zealand.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris)

The small Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) that regularly nests in North America, every year flies across the Gulf of Mexico, passing the route of 800 km (500 miles) for about 20 hours. Some will say this is nothing compared to the route Blackcap or Arctic Tern pass when migrating, but you must consider the fact that this hummingbird weights only 3.5 g and is 7-9 cm long, and for such a small bird this is a real marathon. During the 20-hours-long flight this bird flaps its wings 50 times a second making no pause to rest.

Bird migrations, still not fully explained, have been the topic of study not only for scientists. Even Hesiod, Homer, Herodotus and Aristotle found bird migration interesting to study and made records of it. Aristotle knew many birds migrate in autumn and he believed they do so to escape from cold and hunger. But he was wrong about one thing – he thought that swallows don’t migrate and believed they spend the winter sleeping in their nests. But he wasn’t the only that thought so – the belief persisted until the 19th century.

Today we know the only bird that undergoes a form of hibernation is the Common Poorwill (Phalaenoptilus nuttallii). When winter comes, this nocturnal bird finds a comfortable cavity in the rock, reduces its body temperature from 41 to 15°C, almost stops to breathe… and waits for the spring to come.

Unbelievable Animal Heroes that Saved People’s lives

From dolphins that saved a surfer from sharks and a whale that helped a drowning sportsman to an elephant which saved a young girl from a tsunami, these incredible, fearless animal heroes remind us once more of the special species we live with that we need to protect.

Whale Saves Diver

Athlete Yang Yun has been part of an diving competition that required participants to stay at  the bottom of a 20-foot arctic pool in China’s Polar Territory when the very cold conditions caused her legs to cramp, causing her unable to return to the surface. That’s when one of the tank’s residents, a beluga whale called Mila grabbed Yun’s leg and guided her up toward the air.

Dolphins Save Surfer

Flipper spent a number of seasons helping humans out of jams, however his rescues aren’t entirely out of the ordinary for the dolphin species. Reports of dolphins saving humans are almost everywhere, such as the one about Todd Endris, a surfer who survived an assault by a great white shark that he said “came out of nowhere” off the coast of California. Right after he was bitten, a pod of bottlenose dolphins circled Endris, keeping off the shark until he could make it back to shoreline — just as they would for one of their own.

Gorilla Saves Boy 

When a 3-year-old child fell into the gorilla exhibit at the Brookfield Zoo in Illinois it wasn’t only injuries from the 24-foot-drop that place him in danger: The exhibit had many grown-up gorillas on exhibit that were also a threat. But 7-year-old girl gorilla Binti took over, picking up the boy and cradling him before leaving him gently by a door for zookeepers to rescue him. The toddler was transferred to the hospital and recovered.

Dog Saves Boy

Man’s best friend isn’t the type to shy away from saving an owner, but it’s still heartwarming to know about dogs that put themselves in harm’s way for their owners. In this case, it was 18-week-old doggy Pinky who grabbed the attention of a swarm of bees that was going for her human companion, 9-year-old Richie Bragg: Pinky was stung more than 40 times but made it, and most probably rescued Richie — who has a blood condition that prevents proper clotting — from needing serious medical assistance.

Seal Saves Man

When an injured elephant seal pup was saved in 1994 at the animal facility that would become the Aquarium of the Pacific, keepers were simply hoping she’d survive — she did, and became a favorite of guests and locals with a status for being “a gentle giant,”.

But when Ryono fell while feeding seal pups a year later and found himself unable to get out of the way of the pups’ aggression, it was Gimpy that stepped in, protecting Ryono from an attack.

Lions Save Girl

While some websites challengethe fact of this story, The Guardian reports that, in 2005, a girl in Ethopia has been kidnapped by seven men and beaten for 7 days — until 3 lions hunted down the men away and stood guard over the girl until police found her. Theories for the lions’ behavior range from the idea that they mistook her cries for those of a baby lion to the chance that they were getting ready to eat the girl when the police showed up, however the Guardian quotes an Ethopian police sergeant as saying, “If the lions had not come then it could have been much worse.”

Watusi Calf Saves Woman

Lurch, an African Watusi calf has intercepted his owner, Janice Wolf, while she was walking the paths of her Arkansas refuge. Lurch refused to move out of the way and when Wolf grabbed his horns to guide him, he knocked her off balance — thereby preventing her from stepping on a coiled copperhead snake she was about to disturb.

Dolphin Saves Drowning Swimmer

It’s not only shark attacks that inspire dolphins to swim into action and save people: One rescuer, Filippo, was a well-known resident of the Adriatic Sea off Italy’s Manfredonia who became a spur-of-the-moment lifeguard when a 14-year-old boy fell into the sea — not knowing how to swim. Scotland’s Daily Record reports that the dolphin pushed the boy to keep him above the water until his parents could pull him to safety.

Elephant Saves Girl

Amber Mason, an eight-year-old girl from Bucks, England, was in Phuket, Thailand when the tsunami struck in 2005 — riding an elephant named Ningnong. As the water rose, the elephant ran up the shore, taking the brunt of the impact and keeping Amber above the water.