Migration takes loads out of birds. In addition to the great vitality long-distance flights require, birds’ journeys put them in the way in which of myriad dangers each pure and human-caused, in order that they have robust incentives to take probably the most direct route doable. Even so, some birds fly nicely out of their manner earlier than or throughout their fall migration for a cause that is equally life-or-death: to exchange the feathers they depend on to fly. For these species—many more than once thought—migration is not simply going from level A to level B. Meet the molt-migrants.
Molting grounds might be as basic as multi-state area or as particular as a single lake. Scientists are nonetheless making an attempt to study what compels sure birds however not others (even inside a single species) to apply molt-migration, however the availability of contemporary sources, which can have been exhausted on breeding grounds, appears key. Figuring out and defending the habitats molt-migrants hunt down and depend upon may very well be important to supporting these species.
Use the map beneath to discover the three-step journeys of three molt-migrant species.