So you think spring is stirring in your bones. Whatever fever you’re feeling, it’s probably not as strong as the migration tug in birds to the south of us these March days.
Spring is stirring in not only the bones of birds, but also in their brains—yes, bird brains—urging them to point their beaks northward and get on with what’s arousing their feathers, tingling their wings. It’s the stirring of migration and nesting, the need to nuture a family. It’s the awakening once again to get on with the survival of the species.
A migration study has found that birds’ urge to fly north in the spring has such an urgency that they make their spring return journey to our yards, fields and forests two to six times faster than their southward flight in fall. Scientists are now tracking entire migration routes, speeds and stopover locations of individual songbirds, using tiny geolocators, the first tracking devices small enough and light enough for songbirds to carry.
Weighing a fraction of an ounce, geolocators don’t slow the flight, say scientists. One female purple martin was tracked averaging 358 miles a day while winging northward more than 4,500 miles in only 13 days. That’s nearly four times faster than scientists previously thought. (Come to think about it, translating wings to tires, the 358 miles a day would also be pretty good for traveling cross-country by car or RV.)
Not only are we finding that birds migrate at a faster flight speed in spring than previously thought, we are also finding that the fall migration is more leisurely, with long layovers. Could it be that after all the hustle and bustle of nesting is over the birds simply slow down, take a breather and enjoy themselves?
But come spring, they feel the overwhelming urge to travel and stake a claim in the northland (as was the scarlet tanager in the above photo from a past spring). They’re feeling the urge to build a nest and raise young. They’re feeling it right now, a thousand or more miles away. Your bluebird, your robin, your oriole, your hummingbird—yes, all of them and more—are booking a flight to travel swift and light.