Towheeblog

Click here to hear podcast with Scott Weidensaul on bird migration.

Weidensaul is the author of several related books including Return to Wild America, The Raptor Almanac, Of a Feather–A Brief History of American Birding, Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere With Migratory Birds.

Here he is interviewed by Kirby Flanagan, a devoted nature photographer.  Among topics: how annual migrations are far more complex then simply north-south movement.  Migration patterns tend to be driven by relative food abundance.  He also talks of the internal anatomical changes that take place in birds before and during migration.  Some avian organs are largely metabolized during long flights.  Some birds can fly with only one-half the brain asleep, another half awake.  Finally, how birds use quantum physics to navigate…they can see the earth’s magnetic field!!!!!!

A richly informed discussion.