We all know that birds can astound. I just read a book that explains some of the why and how and where.
The stories you'll end up talking about at the dinner table are numerous. The bird's migrations are nearly unbelievable.
Because birding scientists now have minitature tracking devices they can attach to birds, they've learned that their previous ideas about how far birds migrate are very much understated. There are birds that fly 50,000 miles a year. There are birds that take to the air and don't land for months. There are birds that live in one small area during our spring and summer (breeding season) and then fly halfway around the world each year to another small area in our fall and winter. (And some of them have a second breeding season for the Southern Hemisphere's spring and summer. The precision of their travels is astounding.
Take California's Swainson's Hawk, a big population of which, during our spring and summer, live in a small valley north of Mount Shasta. Come fall and winter, they fly 9,000 miles one way to a small valley in Argentina. As spring returns to the north, the birds fly back. Each year, they repeat. The round trip is 18,000 miles.
There are too many such stories to recount. I'll let you dive into the book and enjoy what you learn.
I highly recommend A World On The Wing. I was amazed. I think you will be too.
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