Melissa Mayntz - Migration: Exploring the remarkable journeys of birds

Publishing Director Sarah Lavelle

Commissioning Editor Harriet Butt

Senior Designer Nikki Ellis, Maeve Bargman

Illustrator Katy Christianson

Head of Production Stephen Lang

Production Controller Katie Jarvis

Published in 2020 by Quadrille, an imprint of Hardie Grant Publishing

Quadrille

5254 Southwark Street

London SE1 1UN

quadrille.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders. The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

Cataloguing in Publication Data: a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Text Melissa Mayntz 2020

Illustrations Katy Christianson 2020

Design and layout Quadrille 2020

Author photograph Robin Curry 2020

eISBN 978 1 78713 505 5

CONTENTS

A NOTE ABOUT BIRD NAMES

Wherever a bird is mentioned, both its most familiar common name and its scientific name are included to ensure clarity. There are, for example, 120 bird species that could be called robin but there is only one Indian robin (Saxicoloides fulicatus). While both names may change over time depending on range, local customs and scientific reclassification, those given in this book were accurate at the time of writing and conform to accepted names from BirdLife International.

European Robin

(Erithacus rubecula)

I have always loved birds, and growing up in northern Michigan, I was constantly aware of their seasonal travels. In particular, the American robin (Turdus migratorius) Michigans state bird and a common visitor to my childhood yard would come and go with the snowfall, leaving as the snows deepened and not returning until spring.

As I began my own journeys in life, I discovered more birds and learned more about their movements. I met my first cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) during my freshman year of college, ogled a swallow-tailed kite (Elanoides forficatus) from the balcony of an early apartment, and welcomed lazuli buntings (Passerina amoena) to feeders at my first house. Each one taught me a bit more about birds and how they moved, and the more I travelled myself, the more I learned about birds journeys and migration.

Ive been fortunate that my own travels have been frequent and widespread. My personal migrations have happened during every month of the year, via every mode of transportation, and have moved me not only around my own country, but to far-flung destinations in the Pacific Islands, Caribbean, Middle East, Central America and Europe.

Along the way I have seen some truly spectacular birds, from a golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) yawning alongside a wooded canyon trail in Utah, to a laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) calmly soaring just feet above my head on a jutting cliff in Hawaii. Ill never forget my first Eurasian spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia), flying north from the Red Sea into Israel, or the Italian sparrow (Passer italiae) I saw at Autogrill outside Florence.

Writing Migration: Exploring the Remarkable Journeys of Birds has given me many opportunities to fly further into the world of birds travels. Just as Ive had to change routes and adjust plans, Ive learned how birds adapt to their different journeys, and how migration is much more than just the seasonal northsouth travels I noted in my youth. Ive also learned that the cancelled flights, changed itineraries and bad weather Ive encountered are nothing compared to the hardships birds face during migration, or to the risks that put their future movements in jeopardy.

It is my hope that everyone who reads this book will not only be inspired to make journeys of their own to see more spectacular birds, but also to take steps to safeguard all birds migrations. Each of us ought to have the chance to see some of the species featured in these pages and experience the wonders of birds movements at all times of year.

Lets fly.

Laysan Albatross

(Phoebastria immutabilis)

Simply defined, migration is movement. But it is so much more than that.

Birds are moving all the time. They fly in different ways depending on whether theyre foraging, visiting water sources, gathering nesting material, escaping predators or chasing intruders. They have special types of flight to entice mates and to show off their strength to competitors. Some birds, such as the barn swallow (Hirundo rustica), fly while drinking, and others, such as the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), make spectacular aerial dives while hunting. These flights are all beautiful, graceful movements, but none are migration.

From the Latin migratus, the word migration refers not just to movement, but also to a significant geographic change. Migration is when an entire population undertakes a semi-permanent, seasonal relocation. But just how permanent, how seasonal, and how far that geographic shift is can vary greatly.

There are approximately 10,000 bird species in the world, and more than half of them are considered migratory to some degree. Yet not one of those more than 5,000 species migrates in exactly the same way, at exactly the same time, or along exactly the same route to exactly the same destination.

Barn swallow

(Hirundo rustica)

STUDYING MIGRATION

Humans have been fascinated by migration for more than 3,000 years, and have studied the movements of birds ever since they first noticed their seasonal travels.

Migration is part of ancient Polynesian legends and is noted in the Old Testament of the Bible. Greek and Roman scholars studied migration, including Homer, Aristotle and Pliny the Elder. Depictions of migratory bird flocks, including the greater white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons), are even found in ancient Egyptian paintings and bas-relief carvings.

Today, naturalists and ornithologists around the world continue to study migration. After centuries of observations and deductions, we know a great deal about these bird movements, but there is still more we dont completely understand. Even today, migration continues to be a mysterious, stunning spectacle that fascinates, awes and inspires birders and non-birders alike.