Migrating birds have also picked up on our Interstate highway system. You can see them over the highways in spring and fall. It's like they have a Rand McNally Road Atlas hardwired in their tiny little heads.
Golden Plover migrates from Alaska to Hawaii and back. Not much room for error.
Hummingbirds are amazing. The ruby-throated hummingbird's flight across the gulf of mexico takes about 24 hours and they beat their wings around 5 million times nonstop. So much energy in such a tiny creature! And to find their way over water in darkness and in different weather conditions is incredible.
Yup. They fly right here to Mobile and I put out feeders for them every year, they fly for 20-26 hours across the gulf. There is a major bird 'flyway' through here and a big bird watching area.
Dauphin Island is the first land that some of the birds see after flying across the gulf and the Dauphin Islanders have a term 'fall-out' that occurs when some of the bird flocks arrive. Some of the birds are so tired that when they see land below them they actually stop flying and just fall out of the sky.