Such a long journey

Recent studies might have uncovered how migrating birds can sense the Earth’s magnetic field to navigate. But that’s not the only fascinating feature; three naturalists reveal cool facts about these winged migrants

Many feathers in their cap

The coolest thing about birds is that they understand the Earth’s geology. Birds of prey have mastered the art of capturing thermals. Thermals are bursts of hot air that rise up into the atmosphere as the day progresses. Depending on how a piece of land is warmed by the sun, thermals are formed and these birds take lift from the thermals because these are rising gusts of air. The birds then use it to scale higher, ultimately minimising their effort to fly and focussing their efforts on scavenging for food. Then we have things such as mimicry. A greater racket-tailed drongo can learn sounds from their environment and pick up sounds including human sounds.
Pravin Subramanian, veteran naturalist

Tagging matters

Siberian crane. Pics/Wikimedia Commons

The Siberian crane [critically endangered] breeds in summer in Siberia, and migrates to China in the winter. With technological advancements like radio tags, we can now precisely locate the birds which are tagged. An interesting detail was noticed with tagged birds — they arrive at the same spot in China every year. This is called site fidelity. This is probably seen in other species too.

The cranes that hatched in Siberia were guided by the adults only once to reach China, and later kept coming by the same route unaided. How does the little one know the route! It probably got imprinted in them. 
Adesh Shivkar, ornithologist, director -Nature India Tours

Hardened navigators

Amur falcon. Pic/ Saurabh Sawant

Migration itself is fascinating. For example, the amur falcon travels from the northeast region in China, and southeast Russia all the way to south and east Africa. This is over 20,000 kms, round trip. And they do it very efficiently. They pass through India where they make a stopover in the northeast regions mainly in Nagaland, Manipur and Assam, and feed themselves on different kinds of insects.

Saurabh Sawant

They do this to collect all the energy they need for the entire migration journey. They essentially fatten themselves up because after this stopover, they will head to the west coast of India and later fly continuously over the ocean to Africa, and they won’t stop in between. 
Saurabh Sawant, naturalist, wildlife photographer, filmmaker

Be a backyard birdwatcher

>> Listen to and follow bird calls, especially now because it’s the breeding season. £Take notes. These could be simple comments on the presence or absence of birds. Over time, this can contribute to citizen science.

>> Observe the ficus tree species like banyan, peepal or fig trees for many species. £Refer to Birds of Mumbai by Sunjoy Monga, Birds of Bombay by WWF, and The Book of Indian Birds by Dr Salim Ali to learn more.

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