Where do the birds who leave Maryland go for the winter? – South Maryland network

Baltimore Orioles can be found in much of Maryland during the summer months. In winter, Baltimore Orioli fly south of Venezuela. Photo of Jeff Dyke sent for the Maryland DNR photo contest for 2018

By Joe Zimmerman, a writer of science with the Maryland Natural Resources Department: In the last summer of Maryland’s Tern RAFT, human -created conservation platform that serves as a habitat for colonial water -supplying water birds, scientists found a simple thrill with a distinctive orange label on their leg.

The label shows that Argentine researchers have tied Tern in the winter in Punta Rasa, a coastal zone south of Buenos Aires. This means that this common path – and at least five others there with similar labels – were about 5,000 miles between the summer, spent in the waters of the coastal bays of the Warkster County and the winters deep in the southern hemisphere.

Maryland, especially coastal areas along the Chesapike Bay, attracts many migrating northern birds in the winter, but this migrating pull goes in both directions. Although these ordinary fishermen are one of the most remote trips, they are hardly the only birds that are cleared of Maryland for more measured air conditioning in the more cold months.

“Migration is very dynamic and variable from species,” says Dave Brinker, a Maryland Natural Resources Department that studies the movement of birds. “They all have their different strategies to do so in the winter.”

Some of the birds leaving Maryland are other breeding water birds, such as small and fast pipelines breeding on Asatiga, before following the South Coast of the Atlantic in the winter, with some breaking into the Bahamas.

A common road in Maryland with an orange ribbon known as the “flag” placed around your foot in Punta Rasa, Argentina. Photo by Kim Ablanalp

A number of songs also fly south of Maryland, including the state bird, Baltimore Oriole. While Baltimore Oriol inhabits the bigger part of the state in their breeding season, they fly to Florida, Cuba, Central America and even Colombia and Venezuela for the rest of the year. A yellow -throat Vireos follow a similar model of migration, while the Cerulean fighters reach Bolivia.

This does not necessarily mean that Oriole eats an orange on your Birdfeeder in July returns to Bogota or Caracas in January. Brinker noted that many bird migration models follow the “Leapfrog” model where birds in the summer of the higher north are inclined to travel the most distant south, jumping over the birds this summer and not migrated so far. Maryland is to the southern edge of the Baltimore Summer Range, so they may not travel right to their Canadian cousins.

No matter how far they fly, many birds while they are far away in the winter in a place that may seem enviable for Marylanders, which makes in a polar whirlwind. Swifts chimneys, known for their dramatic air acrobatics and their ability to cling to chimneys and hollow logs, divided the seasons between continents, wintering from Colombia to Peru and Brazil. Barn Swallows, another dynamic aerialist, summer in the state, and spread through Central and South America for the rest of the year, while Rubin-Grell Hummingbird sticks to Yucatan through Costa Rica.

Most Maryland migrators do not have as much solid evidence of their travels as the label of the common path, but there is considerable information about many migrating species. The Audubon Society (with their interactive migration card) and Cornell’s laboratory of ornithology draws up data from tracked observations collected by GPS transmitters, observations and other sources reported.

While many people accept that birds fly south in just a warmer weather, Brinker noted that the shift of nutritional sources is a driving factor for many migrations. This is especially true for insects such as black breast green diseases that nest in the forests of West Maryland and have to go south after “the insect load in the forest canopy has decreased,” he said.

Many of the birds that remain in the state throughout the winter are seeds, such as cardinals and subtle and have a more reliable source of food throughout the winter. Being in the middle of the Atlantic, Maryland has a number of year -round birds for the resident, and the southern states tend to have more that do not migrate.

Some birds go south in pursuit of another prey – even other migrating birds. Some Peregrine’s Arctic Falcons follow the coastal birds south, but Maryland’s Peregrine Falcons tend to stay in the area throughout the year, Brinker said. But other predatory birds of prey, as wide-winged hawks and dresses-milled from Maryland to Central and South America.

The swallow for barn gives an insect to a minor. The levies of the barn are insects that catch bugs in the air and grow young in places like Maryland before wintering from Mexico to Patagonia. A photo from William Pulli sent to Maryland’s Maryland photo contest in 2023.

Adding to the complications of migration, there are some species of birds that follow what is known as “optional migration,” Brinker said. This is when a bird conditionally migrates based on environmental conditions, such as the red Grebe breast that migrates to this area when Lake Erie freezes, if cold temperatures are kept in the large lakes, Marylanders can see more red backs this Winter.

But one almost constant in migration is that individual birds usually return to the same place every year, winter and summer. Brinker said that “the greater part of our birds follow this model.” Like the Anadrome fish that return to the river, they were caused, the birds follow a number of environmental and sensory signals to return to the same place. (An exception is the Snow Owls that return to the same areas consistently in winter – including Assateague – but in the summer in the summer in search of Lemings.)

Knowing as much as we can for the movement of birds, it ultimately helps us protect the birds best, Brinker said. More stationary species may need more landscape protection in one area, while migrating birds may need a “string of pearls” from protected habitats along their route.

“At both ends of the spectrum, knowing that mobility and migration are essential,” Brinker said. “This can help us keep all our birds stable in Maryland.”

Ospri catches fish. The Chesapiq Bay has the largest breeding population in the Osprey world, which passes to Central America to Brazil in the winter. Photo of J. Sal icaza sent for the Maryland 2020 DNR photo contest.

This record was published on February 6, 2025. At 02:25h News, Z 600×120 the most arrival advertising bottoms, Z 600×120 top ad top. You can follow all the answers to this entry via RSS 2.0 Feed.