Birds are one of the animals that always migrate. Some birds can migrate up to hundreds of kilometers. Migratory birds are known to depend on Earth’s magnetic field to help them navigate the globe.
Let’s down below to know the migration of birds, how they do it and why is it important to them?
Why do Birds Migrate?
In a year some part of the globe will experience the rainy season and the dry season. In fact, there are some regions around the globe which experience four seasons (spring, summer, fall, and winter). In the four seasons, food sources will decrease when fall and winter arrive.
When food sources are reduced, the birds that live in that area also have to migrate to other places, this is how wetland birds survive in the dry season. If not, they can starve and die slowly.
Because of this basic need, birds do migration. If you are curious whether the birds’ migratory happen to all species of the birds or not check it on another article.
The birds usually migrate from north to south and vice versa. For example, the Siberian Cranes, they migrated from Siberia to India. Then the Arctic sea pigeon, it migrated from the north pole to the south pole.
Some groups of birds usually breed in migration sites, so when they return, they already have children. In the migrate land they are making nest and breed, you might check the process of making bird’s nest.
But there are also groups of birds that only find food and avoid the coldness. Birds in this group usually breed in their native place. You might wonder how can birds lay their eggs in spring? Check it out in another article.
Tiny Arctic tern migrate from the north pole to the south pole. If calculated, the distance of migration carried out by the tiny Arctic tern reached 44,000 miles or 70,811 kilometres.
Types of Bird Migration
Latitudinal migration is birds movement from one place to another, where the height of the original location and the destination location are not the main factors.
Cuckoo breeds in India and spends the summer at southeast Africa and thus covers a distance of about 7250 km. Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), a resident of east Europe and west Asia migrate towards the Atlantic coast.
The altitudinal migration happens in mountainous regions. Many
birds inhabiting the mountain peaks migrate to low lands during winter
The longitudinal migration happens when the birds migrate from east
to west and vice- versa.
Partial migration happens when all the members of a group of birds do not take part in migration. Only several members of a group take part in migration.
Blue Jays of Canada and northern part of United States travel southwards to blend with the sedentary populations of the Southern States of U.S.A.
Total migration happens when all the members of a species take part
in the migration.
Vagrant or irregular migration occurs when some of the birds disperse to a short or long distance for safety and food
Seasonal migration happens when a home birds migrate at different seasons of the year for food or breeding. This is one of the example of how animals prepare and survive winter coldness.
Diurnal migration happens to many larger birds like crows, robins, swallows, hawks, jays, blue birds, pelicans, cranes, geese, and many more. They migrate during daytime for food.
Nocturnal migration occurs when some small-sized birds of passerine groups like sparrows, warblers, etc. migrate during the night.
How Bird do Migration
Every year, thousands of raptors migrate to the southern part of the Earth through two routes:
- Eastern inland corridor, which is the path that raptor travels from south eastern Siberia through eastern China to the Malaysian peninsula, then landed in Indonesia, such as Java, Bali and Lombok.
- Coastal pacific corridor which is the path that birds will travel through east Russia through the islands of Japan and Taiwan, then south of the Philippines and pulled over in the Greater Sunda region. In one migration, they can fly up to a distance of 15,000 kilometres with a travel time of 50 – 70 days.
In their
migration journey, raptor usually flies during the day. At night, they find a
place to stop for a break. At the resort, they can spend 3 to 14 days to find
food and then return to continue their journey.
Interestingly, the raptor uses their internal clock to detect the location of the sun and the earth’s magnetism.
With the help of hot air, they can fly high and hurtle. That behavior can save their energy during the migration journey to their destination.
More or less than 60 types of raptor migrate annually to Southeast Asia, 19 of them go to Indonesia before finally returning to their breeding habitat.
For example, the Asian honey-sikep (Pernis ptilorhynchus ), Chinese Sparrowhawk (Accipiter soloensis), black baza (Aviceda leuphotes), and gray-faced buzzard (Butastur indicus) that return to their breeding habitat.
It is estimated, ten of thousands of birds migrate to warm regions in Asia, including Indonesia. Threats are always lurking about migrant birds, ranging from climate change, natural disasters, forest destruction, to hunting.