Blackpoll Warbler

Fall is an exciting time for birdwatchers on Grand Bahama because many of our feathered winter visitors arrive from their breeding grounds up north. In fact, some of the songbirds, the tiny warblers, travel over 3000 miles to get here.

Scientists don’t know exactly how the migrating birds find their way over long distances, but they are discovering that birds use a variety of navigational aids. They use mountain ranges and coastlines. They set their flight path by the sun and the stars and possibly by the lines of force in the earth’s magnetic field. How the tiny bird brains process these cues is a marvel of nature!...

Mr. Tony White, a board member of the American Birding Association who also conducts the annual Christmas Bird Count in Nassau and Grand Bahama, has provided me with an explanation which he received from a highly acclaimed seabird biologist in the United States, Dr. David Lee.