Why do birds Migrate?
Learn why birds migrate.
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Many may or may not know it the birds are making their big move from as far away as, Chile and Argentina, South America. Their arrival destinations for the summer include the United States and Canada, where they breed. Many bird species breed in Canada during the summer, then lots of them make their way back down in the south for the winter. The reason birds migrate in the spring and fall is because these 3 main factors:
1. Seasonal changes: Birds need a reliable food source, winters in Canada are pretty harsh so in that case food sources are very limited. They migrate to find a better food source in the winter.
2. Breeding and nesting: Birds migrate to find suitable breeding and nesting grounds. Different bird species prefer different habitats for breeding and nesting. Many of them rely on Canada’s abundance of food sources during breeding and nesting periods.
3. Food availability: Birds rely on food sources to survive just like us humans need food to survive. In that case birds migrate to find reliable food sources in the winter and summer.
I have always been interested in bird migration ever since I started birding. It is a very interesting topic if you ask me. There is so much to learn when it comes to bird migration, such as when birds migrate, how many migrate at once, or do male or female birds arrive first. So many questions a person could ask about bird migration.
One website I really like is BirdCast. It is a bird migration forecast website. Unfortunately, it is only available for the United States at the moment, hopefully they will expand to Canada and even South America one day. I really like it because it can help tell you when higher numbers of birds will be migrating during particular days. They have used data from places like eBird to help estimate when and what species will be migrating.
Here is what it looks like:
This is a live bird migration map. It is nice because it helps determine which direction birds are going.
Then they have normal bird migration forecast maps, like this one:
They also have migration dashboards for the area you would like to examine. Here is one for West Virginia for example:
So overall it is a great website for migration related stuff in the United States.
If you are looking to learn even more about bird migration, I would highly suggest reading this article: Learn more about bird migration.
If you have any questions about bird migration leave a comment down below 👇.
I hope you learned something new about birds and their epic thing called “migration’’.
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Until next time, happy birding!
Written by Caleb Shingleton
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Yessir, hope people can learn from this.
Thisis wonderful. Thank you for sharing.