MetaFilter posts tagged with birds and migration

Pluck

aniola — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 18:36:13 -0800

Prior to their southward migration, the godwits eat up large, until up to 55 per cent of their body weight is fat. They then reduce the size of their gut, kidney and liver by up to 25 per cent to compensate for the added weight. Godwits are amazing migratory shorebirds who travel many thousands of miles at a go. Here's a brief documentary of people studying them (12 minutes on youtube + ad, shows invasive surgery). Here's some science on their flights (creative commons). Here's people celebrating their flight (farewell, upcoming arrival). Here's Godwit sex (yt) and the sounds of Godwits (Hudsonian, Marbled, Black-tailed, Bar-tailed). Tangent: Here's a 2009 MeFi post on bird sounds in case you missed it.

No birds were (physically) harmed in the making of these dramatic videos.

oinopaponton — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 11:45:51 -0800

An estimated 10,000 migratory birds whose flight path took them through Manhattan earlier this month became (temporarily) disoriented and trapped in the 88-searchlight glare of the 9/11 Tribute in Light memorial.

Migrating Birds and Oil Platforms

Mo Nickels — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 06:13:11 -0800

Interactions between migrating birds and offshore oil and gas platforms in the northern Gulf of Mexico (PDF, 5.9MB). A scientific but engrossing look at bird migration over the Gulf of Mexico, describing, in part, death by starvation of migrants who have metabolized all their bodily fat, “overshoots” that inadvertently travel past their intended destinations and find themselves unexpectedly over water at first light, and a suggestion that peregrine falcons not only recovered from near extinction due to the presence of oil platforms in the Gulf, but that they may eventually establish a breeding population on the Gulf platform archipelago. Summary. Full report (PDF, 5.9 MB).

apostasy — Thu, 09 May 2002 03:31:43 -0800

Since 1996, The Osprey Project has been re-introducing the osprey into the United Kingdom, and since 1999 has been tracking its migrations, which stretch as far south as Senegal, and can include marathon stretches of open-ocean flight.

Oh, and sometimes they even make it Back.

Why Birds Fly in a 'V'.

MeetMegan — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 12:11:31 -0800

Why Birds Fly in a 'V'. And I thought it was because they liked the view.