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Birds' Migration Distance
The distances that birds migrate vary greatly with the species. Some birds may migrate southward only a few miles; others travel farther, to the Southern States; and over a hundred species leave the United States. Some winter in Central America, some in the northern part of South America, and still others in the southern part of South America. Some warbiers which nest in Alaska probably travel to Brazil, a distance of seven thousand miles.
Golden plover. The two most noted travelers among birds are the golden plover and the Arctic tern. The golden plover nests along the Arctic coast of North America. It then proceeds to Labrador and Nova Scotia, and from here it may make a continuous flight, in pleasant weather, of twentyfour hundred miles, to the coast of South America. It then passes on to Argentina, where it spends the winter. Ft returns north by a different route, passing along the western part of South America and through the United States by the Mississippi Valley, and thence to the northern coast of North America, its nesting-site, a distance of eight thousand miles from its winter home.
Arctic tern. The Arctic tern has even a longer range of travel than the golden plover. Some of these birds breed along the Arctic coast of North America, a nest having been found within seven and a half degrees of the North Pole. Its winter home is eleven thousand miles away, within the Antarctic Cirde, within sixteen degrees of the South Pole. Thus the bird flies almost from pole to pole, twice a year, a journey of twenty-two thousand miles, a distance nearly equal to the earth’s circumference. Mr. W. W. Cooke points out that, as a result of being near the poles for so much of the year, it lives for about eight months in regions of perpetual sunshine, and during the rest of the year its days are much longer than its nights. It might well be called the bird of sunshine.
Winter homes. As one watches the birds in their flight, it is interesting to think of the countries from which they have come, and of the varied scenery which their keen eyes have looked upon. The humniingbird that visits our garden flowers has seen the Panama Canal; the Baltimore oriole that swings its nest from our elm trees has seen the Andes in Colombia; the rose-breasted grosbeak spends his winter just over the equator in Ecuador; the kingbird has Perhaps flown above the waters of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and Peru; the bobolink has traveled from Paraguay to build his nest in our meadows; the red-eyed vireo has visited the coffee plantations of southwestern Brazil; the barn swallow that builds his mud nest in our barns will return to the Pampas in Argentina for his winter sojourn; while some of the nighthawks that nest in Alaska may travel to the southern part of South America, to Patagonia, a distance of about seven thousand miles and of about one hundred and fifteen degrees of latitude.

birds migration - Yahoo! News Search Results
birds migration - Yahoo! News Search Results
Whooping crane migration comes up short
While following an ultralight aircraft guiding them to Florida, young Maryland-bred birds get distracted in Alabama. They'll stay there for now. What's that saying about leading a horse to water? The latest effort to teach Maryland-bred whooping crane chicks to migrate to Florida for the winter has been called off because the endangered birds will no longer follow the ultralight aircraft leading ...
A Whooping Crane Migration Will Finish By Truck
The wayward birds could not be persuaded to follow a pilot flying an ultralight plane.
Green Blog: A Whooping Crane Migration Will Finish By Truck
The wayward birds could not be persuaded to follow a pilot flying an ultralight plane.
With whooping cranes unwilling to continue, annual migration ends in Alabama
By Barbara Behrendt, Times Staff Writer Thursday, February 2, 2012 CHASSAHOWITZKA ? The annual migration of ultralight-led whooping cranes had barely gotten off the ground in October when the problems began. First it was rain and wind that halted the birds in Wisconsin and across the Midwest. They would fly for a day, then have a week of downtime. In December, they finally reached northern ...
Grounded whooping cranes taking to the road
(Reuters) - A flock of young whooping cranes stuck in Alabama have lost interest in following an ultra-light plane leading them to a Florida winter habitat, so the rare birds' human coaches prepared on Friday to drive them to a nearby marsh. "Whether the birds have recognized this is as far as they need to go, we just don't know," said Liz Conde, a spokeswoman for Operation Migration, a public ...
Snowy owls soar south from Arctic in rare mass migration
SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Bird enthusiasts are reporting rising numbers of snowy owls from the Arctic winging into the lower 48 states this winter in a mass southern migration that a leading owl researcher called "unbelievable." Thousands of the snow-white birds, which stand 2 feet tall with 5-foot wingspans, have been spotted from coast to coast, feeding in farmlands in Idaho, roosting on ...
Snowy Owls at Hancock Airport
Three birds here, part of a mass migration to the 'lower 48'
Migration of sandhill cranes is odd this winter
Sandhill crane migration is off schedule this year. Goose Pond property manager Brad Feaster counted 4,525 of them there on Tuesday. But were those birds southbound, northbound or ...
Worth the commute for migrating birds
QWhy do birds bother with migration all the way to South or Central America? Couldn't they winter in our southern states? ASome do go no farther than Missouri or Texas or Florida. But appropriate and adequate food supplies for many species require those long journeys.
Maryland-bred crane chicks to finish migration by truck
MD-bred Whoopers balk at following ultralight pilots to Florida What's that saying about leading a horse to water? The latest effort to teach Maryland-bred whooping crane chicks to migrate to Florida for the winter has been called off because the endangered birds will no longer follow the ultralight aircraft leading them.
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