Of course, not all birds can simply pick up and go. There are a lot of birds that don’t leave a certain area. These birds seek shelter from heavy winds in trees or on branches. Here’s more from birding.com about this process:
When a bird lands, special muscles make their toes automatically tighten around the branch on which they are perched. This holds them in place during high winds or when they sleep. Birds must make an effort to unclench their toes in order to take off. Therefore, during a hurricane, the birds do not necessarily need to hang on tighter – they need to relax!
Other birds even fly directly through a hurricane. Two months ago, I wrote about an amazing Whimbrel that flew 27 hours nonstop into the eye of Hurricane Irene and was flung out the other end.
Despite these amazing stories of bird survival, bird fatalities definitely rise during these natural events. Birds are either blown far off course, injured by flying debris or left without food.
Hopefully the number of birds negatively affected by Hurricane Sandy is minimal.
7 Comments
Still a hurricane. Super storm Sandy is not an official weather classification, but thanks for playing along. Tell em what they won Johnny Jacobs!
Bird, cat, dog or human hurricanes are simply no fun to get stuck in and around.
I’m currently in Elgin, South Carolina the day before Hurricane Michael is due to blow through and the normally noisy birds here are nowhere to be seen nor heard with the exception of one rather large hawk flying low over the lake looking for a silly fish to nab for breakfast.