When do arctic terns migrate

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However, these regions experience a great difference in the amount of daylight hours. During summer, the Arctic and the Antarctic get almost 24 hours of sunlight. During winter, it is almost entirely dark. The arctic tern, going from Arctic summer to Antarctic summer, may experience more daylight than any other animal.

Terns migrate in search of summer sunlight. Sunlight illuminates the ground and the ocean surface, so the birds can see fish or insects more clearly. Summer weather is also usually calmer at sea, allowing the birds to fly more easily.

Over millions of years, arctic terns evolve d to undertake their unique migration. Arctic terns are made for migration. They prefer to glide in the air for most of the year. They are so lightweight, they let ocean breeze s carry them great distances without having to use a lot of energy flapping their wings.

Arctic terns can sleep and eat, all while gliding. In fact, arctic terns are one of the few birds, besides hummingbird s, that can hover in midair. After fitting the birds with tracker s, scientists learned that arctic terns fly thousands of miles out of their way to take advantage of the best weather and get the best food. They can bounce around every continent instead of flying in a straight line back home.

Although most arctic terns return to their home nesting grounds, some birds veer off course. Arctic terns from Siberia have shown up in South Africa, while terns that hatched in Greenland have been sighted in Australia.

The whole journey only takes the terns a couple of months. Other birds have pretty long migrations, including the barn swallow and the sooty shearwater. The sooty shearwater, in fact, goes almost as far as the arctic tern. Still, no other animal makes a commute like this. Arctic terns are not endanger ed, Butcher said. Their breeding ground s are in the high Arctic : the coldest, most remote part of the region. This makes their nests hard to find.

For the Birds Join a birding association near you. But the team used a tiny tracker developed by the British Antarctic Survey, which weighs just a twentieth of an ounce 1. Egevang was surprised to find that the birds often stop for a month in the open North Atlantic Ocean, probably to "fuel up" on fish and small crustaceans before setting off to cross the tropics.

Arctic terns also follow a zigzagging route on their spring trips back to Greenland. Rather than flying straight up the middle of the Atlantic, the birds hopscotch from Antarctica to Africa to South America to the Arctic. The birds appear to be following huge spiraling wind patterns in the atmosphere, avoiding flying into the wind, he said.

Regardless of the route, no one's sure why arctic terns have such a long migration in the first place. Findings published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Complete Birds of the World, in One Book. All rights reserved. Tiny Tech Gets Its Tern Until recently, only larger birds could be followed using tracking devices, because the gadgets were too big and heavy to attach to small birds. But there's a method to their madness.

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How far does the Arctic tern migrate? Photo: Michelle Sole Are Arctic terns endangered? Where can I satisfy my passion for bird-watching in Antarctica? Previous Article. Next Article. First Name.