Question: where do birds go in the winter

Oliver Gordon answered on 2 Mar 2019: last edited 2 Mar 2019 1:23 pm

I’m not a biologist and I don’t study birds (I study computers!) but I’m so happy you asked this question! It’s one of the things that global warming is likely to be having an affect on, and one of my friends from highschool talks about this all the time. Because I don’t want to tell you something wrong (and he knows way more than me!), I asked your question to him. He’s a zoologist (people who study animals), and he asked me to say this to you:

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Most people think that all birds fly south for the winter (or north if you live below the equator!), this isn’t always true. Migration is an instinct, so birds have to be given some sort of “signal” to tell them to fly south. If they can still get food/are still warm, they likely won’t fly (why bother going on a summer holiday if there’s a heatwave at home, right?).

This is one of the problems with global warming. Because it’s warmer, lots of animals don’t migrate even though they should. And because for whatever reason some birds only have babies after they migrate, they slowly die out.
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You don’t have to be a zoologist to see this first hand – because I have to walk through a wood to get to my office every day, the squirrels don’t go into hiding (squirrels don’t hibernate in winter – they just don’t leave the house!) when they should. I think it messes with their instincts as a result, too 😥