How do birds migrate?

Migration is an enormous trek. For some birds, it’s thousands of miles. The longest known migration is thought to be 55,000 miles made by the Arctic Tern. That is insane, I can’t imagine having to cover that much distance, twice a year. Even In a car, that would be too far. Needless to say, migration is tough, but birds (along with other animals) have lots of tools to help them along the way.

Q: First off how do birds know when to migrate?

A: They have a couple of cues that tell them when to leave:

1. When the other birds are leaving

2. Food availability, there will be less food around in the winter

3. The temperature gets colder

But all of those cues are not very reliable. Sometimes they change year to year, sometimes there are not birds of your species around you to signal you to migrate. There might be less or more food throughout the entire year which would confuse the birds, and we all know the weather isn’t reliable. So, they do notice all of those cues but they are secondary cues. Secondary cues fine-tune their primary cue.

4.Their primary cue is the length of sunlight. We have more hours of daylight in the summer and fewer hours in the winter, and birds pay attention to that and use that to their advantage.

Q: How do they know where to go?

A: Just like before they have a couple of ways to figure out what they need to do.

1. The first time they migrate some birds need to follow others in their species who have migrated before, some birds are born with natural instincts to tell them where to go.

2. They look at the stars and use them as a map to figure out which way to go.

3. After they have migrated once they will remember landmarks like mountains, rivers, and roads so the next time they migrate they remember them.

4. They also have magnetite in their beaks. Magnetite is a mineral that acts like a compass, so they know which way north is.

5. They can see polarized light. To explain what they see, imagine a pair of special sunglasses. Normally light vibrates around in any and every direction. These sunglasses let in light that only vibrates one way. At sunset and sunrise, the bird ends up seeing a brighter stripe in the sky going North to South no matter their location.

That sums it up for me, animals are awesome. Go ahead and share one interesting thing you learn from this with someone today. Spread the knowledge. Share it with your kids. You may be thinking this is too complex to tell my kids, but that’s where you’re wrong. I have made a worksheet and I will share it below. If you use it, let me know how it went.

For more go to: https://www.betterrelwanimals.com/

Ornithology for kidsPresentation:

Who can tell me what migration is? Have kids answer

It is when animals move to a different place to live, they do this twice a year. They might live up here in the north during the summer but then the snow is too cold so before winter comes they move south. Then before the summer, they move back to their northern home.

How do birds know when it’s time to move? They don’t have a calendar like us. Have kids answer

They have a couple of cues that tell them when to leave.

1. When their friends are leaving

2. The amount of food around, since there’s less food in the winter

3. The temperature gets colder

4. Then most importantly day length. The earth revolves around the sun in the same pattern every year. The earth is tilted and so it gives us unequal amounts of daylight. We have more hours of daylight in the summer and fewer hours in the summer, and birds pay attention to that! Isn’t that awesome! I don’t know about you but it is hard for me to notice that, but they use it all the time.

How do they know where to go?

Just like before they have a couple of ways to figure out what they need to do.

1. They can follow their friends who have migrated before.
2. They look at the stars and use it as a map to figure out which way to go.
3. After they have done it once they will remember landmarks like mountains, rivers, and roads so the next time they migrate they remember them.
4. Then what I think is the coolest, they have Magnetite in their beaks. It’s a mineral that acts like a compass, so they know which way north is. Isn’t that awesome? I wish I had a compass in my nose.

Activity: Have them “migrate” a preset path.

If they are older about 4–6th grade give them a compass and set of directions. Ie. 4 steps south then 3 steps east

If they are younger create a sensory path lead one on the sensory path “the migration path” but only allow them to look down at their feet. There will be markers that they walk by. They should be able to remember the path by finding the markers. Once the first is lead through, have that kid lead the next kid doing the same thing until all the kids have gone.