Weather evasion

In ornithology, flight evacuation is understood as the ability of many birds to survive unfavorable weather situations through compensatory flights . This ability is almost exclusively available to partial migrants ( rooks , field thrushes , greenfinches , robins and many others), while other species (e.g. kingfisher , barn owl ) are hardly able to do so and can therefore suffer enormous losses in very severe winters.

Weather alignments usually run within a sector of the main train direction, or against this direction. In birds at higher altitudes, they lead vertically into the valleys (e.g. wall creepers , Alpine brown flies ).

Common swifts leave their breeding area in unfavorable weather conditions even during the breeding season. During this time, the young lapse into a kind of starvation , in which they can survive for up to two weeks, depending on their fat reserves and stage of development.

literature

• Wulf Gatter: Bird migration and bird populations in Central Europe , AULA: Wiesbaden, 2000.
• Peter Berthold : Bird migration. A current overview , Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 6th edition 2008. ISBN 978-3-534-20267-6 .