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Asked by Adri to Carrie, Cedric, Ellen, Ines, Rupert on 13 Mar 2017.
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Ellen Williams answered on 13 Mar 2017:
I don’t know if the species necessarily determines where the bird will migrate but different species migrate to all different places. A huge amount of birds do migrate though, and their migration is usually determined by needs for food and breeding opportunities (i think). It is amazing to think that such tiny birds such as swallows can fly the distances they do!
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Carrie Ijichi answered on 13 Mar 2017:
The species can determine where but also the particular group (population) they’re from too. So there are blackcap birds and some travel south-west and other travel south-east to migrate. If you cross breed the two they do something in between those two responses and get lost! Their genes can have a big role to play in telling them where and when they should go and obviously genes are different between species and population within species.
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Rupert Marshall answered on 13 Mar 2017:
Different species sometimes migrate to the same place but there is as much difference between species as within. Take the blackcap, a small songbird. Those that live in Germany fly to Africa for the winter. Only half of those in the UK fly to Africa – the rest stay here. And some on the islands of the Azores, just of the top of Africa, stay in the same place and don’t migrate at all. Some birds migrate to the same place but go completely different ways to get there. Perhaps more interestingly climate change is linked to some birds not migrating as far – it’s now warmer than it used to be in some places so there is no need to go so far south to keep warm.
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Cedric Tan answered on 14 Mar 2017:
Yes! Some birds migrate while others don’t. Bird migrate to escape the harsh winter when it comes, and fly to somewhere warmer and has more food. Those that stay behind probably cannot fly long distance but they gorge themselves with lots of food during autumn so that they don’t starve during winter!
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