HOW DO BIRDS KNOW WHEN TO MIGRATE?
DO MIGRATORY BIRDS HAVE A SIXTH SENSE?
How do migratory birds know how to migrate? Do they have a sixth sense? For us humans, it’s hard to put a finger on how we know when the seasons are changing from summer to fall. Like a Moon one night past the full, there’s a sliver missing, a little nibbling at the edges of the season.
Even as the apples hang heavy and the air sharpens on the smell of wild grapes, summer’s riot is pared away. Is it a rattle in the oak leaves, frayed and leathery, when the wind blows? Or a dryness in the roadside flowers, the thirsty look of the goldenrod, the calico asters? Or a new nameless taste in the September air, as if our senses were privy to some intelligence they would just as soon keep to themselves? . .
But also interestingly, many species of birds experience restlessness every fall and spring known as Zugunruhe (TSOOG-un-roo-uh), in the weeks before their departure. This “migration anxiety” makes them seem hyperactive and antsy, particularly in the evenings or during the night, moving around or breaking into song for no reason at all. Their sleep patterns are changing. They know they are on the cusp of something new, a change of scene, an adventure. For this year’s fledglings, what that adventure will be is inconceivable. But nonetheless they feel it coming and ready themselves.'>>>
https://www.almanac.com/bird-migration-how-birds-know-when-to-migrate?
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