The Migration of North American Birds (1935)

DISTANCES OF MIGRATION VARY

Definite evidence shows that both the length and the duration of the migratory journey vary greatly. The bobwhite and the western quails, the cardinal (Richmondena cardinalis), the Carolina wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus), and probably some of the titmice and woodpeckers, which are apparently nonmigratory, may round out their full period of existence without at any time going more than 10 miles from the nest where they were hatched.

SHORT AND UNDETERMINED MIGRATIONS

Song sparrows, meadow larks (Sturnella), blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata), and some other species make such short migrations that the movement is difficult to detect, as individuals may be found in one area throughout the year. Thus, at the southern part of the range there is merely a concentration in winter, the summer individuals being entirely sedentary. Speculation is useless on the distances of individual migration without definite evidence concerning the precise winter quarters of birds that summer in a particular part of the breeding range of the species, but from the records of banded birds important evidence is becoming available. Eventually it may be possible to say definitely just how far the song sparrows that nest in northern New England and the Maritime Provinces of Canada travel to their winter quarters, and whether the blue jays of New York and the upper Mississippi Valley remain throughout the winter in their breeding areas, or move farther south and relinquish their places to individuals from southern Canada.

An illustration of what is now known on this subject is found in the case of the robin. This bird occurs in the Middle Atlantic States throughout the year, in Canada only in summer, and along the Gulf coast only as a winter resident. On the Atlantic coast its movements are readily ascertained, since, for example, in the section about Washington, D. C., the breeding robin is the southern variety (Turdus migratorius achrusterus), which is found there from the first of April to the last of October, when its place is taken (in smaller numbers) by the northern robin (T. m. migratorius), which arrives about the middle of October and remains until the following April. It is probable that a similar interchange of individual robins occurs throughout a large part of the rest of its range, the hardy birds from the north being the winter tenants in the abandoned summer homes of the southern birds.

The red-winged blackbirds that nest in northern Texas are almost sedentary, but in winter they are joined by representatives of other subspecies that nest as far north as the Mackenzie Valley.

VARIABLE MIGRATIONS WITHIN SPECIES

The difference in characters between subspecies has been used by students of migration to discover other interesting facts concerning variations of the migratory flight between closely related birds that breed in different latitudes. The familiar eastern fox sparrow (Passerella iliaca iliaca), for example, breeds from northwestern Alaska to Labrador, and in winter is found concentrated in the southeastern part of the United States. It thus travels a long distance each year. On the west coast of the continent, however, six subspecies of this bird breed in rather sharply delimited ranges, extending from the region of Puget Sound and Vancouver Island to Unimak Island, at the end of the Alaska Peninsula. One of these, known as the sooty fox sparrow (P. i. fuliginosa), breeds in the Puget Sound area and makes practically no migration at all, while the other races, nesting on the coast of British Columbia and Alaska, are found in winter chiefly in California. The races that breed farthest north are in winter found farthest south, illustrating a tendency for those birds that are forced to migrate to pass over those so favorably located that they have no need to leave their breeding areas, while the northern birds settle for the winter in the unoccupied areas farther south (fig. 12).

Another example of the same kind is found in the case of the Maryland yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) of the Atlantic coast. Birds occupying the most southern part of the general range are almost nonmigratory, residing throughout the year in Florida, while those breeding as far north as Newfoundland go to the West Indies for the winter, thus passing directly over the home of their southern relatives.

The palm warbler (Dendroica, palmarum), which breeds from Nova Scotia and Maine west and northwest to southern Mackenzie, has been separated into two subspecies. Those breeding in the interior of Canada (D. p. palmarum) make a 3,000-mile journey from Great Slave Lake to Cuba, passing through the Gulf States early in October. After the bulk have passed, the palm warblers from the Northeastern States and Provinces (D. p. hypochrysea) drift slowly into the Gulf coast region, where they remain for the winter. Their migratory journey is about half as long as that of the northwestern subspecies.

There is no invariable law governing the distance of migration, although in general it is found that where a species has an extensive range, the subspecies that breed farthest north go farthest south to spend the winter

FALL FLIGHTS NOT FAR SOUTH OF BREEDING RANGES

Some other species that have extensive summer ranges, for instance, the pine warbler (Dendroica pinus), rock wren (Salpinctes obsoletus), field sparrow (Spizella pusilla), loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus), and black-headed grosbeak (Hedymeles melanocephalus), are found to concentrate during the winter season in the southern part of the breeding range, or to occupy additional territory that is only a short distance farther south. The entire species may thus be confined within a restricted area for the period of winter, and then, with the return of warmer weather, spreads out to reoccupy the full range.

There are many species, including the tree sparrow, slate-colored junco, and Lapland longspur (Calcarius lapponicus), that nest in Canada and winter in the United States; while others, including the vesper sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus), chipping sparrow (Spizella passerina), grackles, red-winged blackbird, bluebird, the woodcock (Philohela minor), and several species of ducks, nest in the northern United States and move south for the winter to areas along the Gulf of Mexico. This list includes the more hardy species, some individuals of which may linger in protected places well within the reach of severe cold, as, for example, Wilson's snipe, or jacksnipe (Capella delicata), which frequently is found during subzero weather in parts of the Rocky Mountain region where warm springs assure a food supply. More than 100 of our summer birds leave the United States entirely and spend the winter id the West Indies or in Central America or South America. For example, the Cape May warbler (Dendroica tigrina), which breeds from northern New England, northern Michigan, and northern Minnesota, north to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and nearly to Great Slave Lake, is concentrated in winter chiefly in the West Indies, its metropolis at this season being the island of Hispaniola.

LONG-DISTANCE MIGRATIONS

Some of the common summer residents are not content with a trip to northern South America, but push on across the Equator and finally come to rest for the winter in the pampas of Argentina, or even in Patagonia. Thus some species that are more or less associated with, each other in summer, as nighthawks, barn swallows, cliff swallows, and some of the thrushes may also occupy the same general winter quarters in Brazil. Some individual nighthawks and barn swallows (fig. 13) travel still farther, and of all North American land birds these species probably have the longest migration route, as they occur north to Yukon and Alaska, and south to Argentina, 7,000 miles away. Such seasonal flights are exceeded in length, however, by the journeys of several species of water birds, chiefly members of the suborder of shore birds. In this group are 19 species that breed north of the Arctic Circle and winter in South America, 6 of them going as far south as Patagonia, and thus having a migration route more than 8,000 miles in length.

The arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) is the champion "globe trotter" and long-distance flier (figs. 14 and 15). Its name "arctic" is well earned, as its breeding range is circumpolar and it nests as far north as it can find a suitable place. The first nest to be found in this region was only 7½° from the North Pole, and it contained a downy chick surrounded by a wall of newly-fallen snow that had been scooped out by the parent. In North America it breeds south in the interior to Great Slave Lake, and on the Atlantic coast to Massachusetts. After the young are grown, the arctic terns disappear from their North American breeding grounds, and a few months later they may be found in the Antarctic region, 11,000 miles away. Until very recently the route followed by these hardy fliers was a complete mystery, for although a few scattered individuals have been noted south as far as Long Island, the species is otherwise practically unknown along the Atlantic coasts of North America and South America. It is, however, known as a migrant on the west coast of Europe and Africa. By means of numbered bands the picture is now developing of what is apparently not only the longest but also one of the most remarkable of all migratory journeys.

Judging by the evidence at present available, it seems likely that the arctic terns of eastern North America originally found their way here from the Old World, probably by way of Iceland and Greenland. Consequently when the time comes for them to migrate to winter quarters they do not go directly south as do the common (Sterna hirundo) and Forster's terns (S. forsteri), but instead, they fly back eastward along their ancestral route across the Atlantic to the shores of Europe and then go south along the African coast to their winter home; those that breed in the northwestern part of the continent, as in Alaska, probably migrate chiefly down the western coast, as the species is not infrequently reported on the coast of California and also on the western coast of South America.

The evidence yielded by banding consists of only three definite cases, but their interpretation seems to permit but one conclusion: All three birds were banded as downy chicks, one on July 3, 1913, at Eastern Egg Rock, Maine,[3] and the other two at the Red Islands, Turnevik Bay, Labrador, on July 22, 1927, and July 23, 1928. The first was found dead in the Niger River delta, West Africa, in August 1917, while the Labrador birds were recovered near La Rochelle, France, on October 1, 1927, and at Margate, near Port Shepstone, Natal, South Africa, on November 14, 1928. The flight shown by this last record is the longest known, the trip, between 8,000 and 9,000 miles, being accomplished in less than 3 months.

Probably no other animal in the world enjoys as many hours of daylight as does the arctic tern, since for these birds the sun never sets during their nesting season in the northern part of the range, while during their sojourn in the south, daylight is continuous. During several months of the year they have 24 hours of daylight and during the other months considerably more daylight than darkness.