Many birds fly across the oceans and between continents in groups to follow food, habitat or weather conditions. These great seasonal movements of bird species are known as migrations. The most famous migrants like swallows and arctic terns travel huge distances across the globe. About 40 percent of the worlds bird species (at least 4,000 species) regularly migrate, some traveling across oceans, other traveling mainly overland.
Arctic terns travel the longest regular migratory route of any animal on earth. Every year these sea birds travel from pole to pole and back, so they experience two summers per year. The round trip is roughly 44,300 miles. Breeding takes place in summer in the Arctic and sub-Arctic areas of North America, Asia and Europe. When Arctic terns are not nesting, they spend almost all of their time in the skies above the oceans, feeding on fish and small invertebrates.
Barn swallows are a type of swallow with a particularly long migration route. Barn swallows are land birds and breed in large groups across most of the Northern Hemisphere, including North America and Europe. They migrate huge distances across the oceans and land to spend winter all over the Southern Hemisphere. Because swallows feed on airborne insects which are common on land, they minimize the distance of sea crossings by detouring across land when possible. When not migrating, Barn swallows are common around waterways, grasslands and lakes.
Ducks, geese and swans spend much of their time swimming and feeding in waterways such as lakes and rivers. They breed in the Arctic during the summer, and fly south across the oceans to milder climates during the winter to avoid frozen water. Most species remain in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Amur falcon is a land bird that breeds in Southeastern Siberia. It flies south across the Arabian Sea to spend winter in southern Africa. Because it feeds mainly on insects, the time it can spend at sea is limited.
Considering these small passerine birds are about 6 inches long, the migration route they follow is impressively long. Northern wheatears fly one of the longest migration routes of any small bird. In spring they fly north across oceans from sub-Saharan Africa via Asia, Europe, Greenland, Alaska and parts of Canada. They all then return to Africa in the Autumn.
Clare Jackson is a freelance writer who started writing in 2008 and began writing for eHow in 2010. She writes on areas related to physics and health. With a background in scientific writing she tends to include lots of information in her articles. Clare has a Master of Science in clinical research and a Bachelor of Science in physics.
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There is a route known as the East Atlantic Flyway used for migration between Eastern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Siberia, Northern Europe, Western Europe, and on to Africa.
There are 297 species using the flyway and tens of thousands of individuals per year. They are mainly waterfowl and waders, but an interesting exception is the recently discovered route of a population of Northern Wheatears in Eastern Canada – a small songbird that migrates through Europe to winter in North Africa.
This flyway has garnered a lot of attention lately because it serves as a vector for the spread of the avian flu between populations in Europe and America, with numerous migration routes overlapping in Iceland, Greenland, and Eastern Canada.
Im not aware of any bird from south of Arctic Canada that makes it over to Europe, apart from the occasional exotic blown over by storms. Most migrations are on a north-south axis, as populations follow food sources across the seasons. There would be little advantage for a bird from lower latitudes in the Americas to make a strenuous migration to a similar latitude and season in Europe.
Although I don’t have a clear answer for your query, that would be unusual, according to basic logic.
Think about what seasonal migration is for. It is to have access to conditions that vary throughout the seasons and that no one location can offer. Some species accomplish this by short migrations between different altitudes. However, by shifting latitude, long-distance migrants will encounter different circumstances. Therefore, such migrations are predominantly north/south. Europe and North America are east/west of each other. It is absurd to travel across an entire ocean only to return to your starting point with essentially the same circumstances.
Based on this reasoning, any species that migrate in the manner you describe would most likely spend the summer in the Arctic. Europe and North America are much closer there. For instance, the bird may fly to Brazil in the northern hemisphere during the winter even though its summer feeding grounds are far enough east to be classified as “Europe.” It’s possible that winters in the Mediterranean region and a little further west in the Arctic would be inverted.
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Land birds like the Amur falcon breed in southeast Siberia. It crosses the Arabian Sea and heads south to southern Africa for the winter. Its primary food source is insects, so its time at sea is restricted.
Freelance writer Clare Jackson started writing in 2008 and started contributing to eHow in 2010. She writes on areas related to physics and health. She has experience writing scientifically, so she usually packs her articles full of details. Clare holds a Bachelor of Science in physics and a Master of Science in clinical research.
Of all the animals on Earth, Arctic terns have the longest regular migration route. These seabirds experience two summers a year because they travel from pole to pole and back every year. The round trip is roughly 44,300 miles. In the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of North America, Asia, and Europe, breeding occurs in the summer. Arctic terns spend nearly all of their time in the skies above the oceans, where they feed on fish and small invertebrates when they aren’t nesting.
Considering that these tiny passerine birds are only 6 inches long, their migratory path is remarkably extensive. Of all small birds, northern wheatears have one of the longest migration routes. They travel from sub-Saharan Africa to the north in the spring, passing through Asia, Europe, Greenland, Alaska, and portions of Canada. They all then return to Africa in the Autumn.
Numerous birds travel in flocks across continents and oceans in search of food, habitat, or favorable weather. Migrations are these large, annual movements of certain bird species. The world’s most well-known migrants, such as arctic terns and swallows, cover enormous distances. At least 4,000 bird species, or about 40% of all bird species worldwide, migrate on a regular basis. Some migrate across oceans, while others mostly migrate overland.
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