Essential Facts of Birding Migration
For a more productive birding excursion, it’s important to understand the essential facts of birding migration. This will let you know when, where, and how you can best study your favorite bird species to your heart’s content.
Cause of Birding Migration
In the United States and the rest of North America, birding migration begins from the northern areas used for breeding grounds and travels to the southern areas for winter breeding. There are, however, a number of bird species that are able to withstand the winters of North Dakota or have sufficient sources for food, water, and warmth and therefore have no needs to migrate.
In the past, man came up with all sorts of reasons to explain the cause of migration. In 1730, an anonymously published London treatise claimed that birds flew to the moon in the months of winter. Another hypothesis was that larger birds carried smaller ones on their backs across the ocean. Some believed that they, too, hibernated or even transmutated.
Today, it is believed that migration patterns had been established in the ice age and that birds only headed north to forage for food and other necessary resources while they headed south when the winters of the north become unbearable.
Migration Patterns
Patterns of birding migration differ from one species to another. Diurnal migration, also known as daylight migration, is common with large, strong, and predatory species like hawks. Geese, herons, and ducks also migrate only during the daylight. Nocturnal migration, on the other hand, is common with the smaller or more reclusive species such as sparrow, cuckoos, bitterns, and thrushes. These birds feed during the day and travel during the night to better avoid detection of larger predators.
Migration also varies in terms of destination. With altitudinal migration, for instance, bird species prefer to head down to valleys and lowlands during the months of winter before going back up to mountainside areas. Chickadees, pipits, and juncos are just a few of such species that prefer this type of movement.
And then there are those that stick to one place all year long. Such species include house sparrows and ruffles grouses.
Migration in North Dakota
In the months nearing and during winter, you have the chance of observing a number of bird species that are rare to North Dakota. Whooping cranes – the tallest birds in North America – stop by in North Dakota, for instance, in the months of April and October as they migrate from Texas and Canada and vice versa.
To catch the best birding sightings in North Dakota, visit state parks such as the Cross Ranch State Park and the Turtle River State Park.
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