Bird Word: migration

Migration: the regular seasonal or annual movement of a species from one area to another.

Some birds are resident in an area the year round. For example, the Australian Magpies in our garden are here all the time. They have a territory of several hectares that they defend with great enthusiasm, especially during the nesting season. “Our” magpies would rarely venture more than a few hundred metres from our garden.

Australian Magpie

Other species move around over a much wider home range. The White Winged Choughs around here are not in our garden or even nearby every day. The pass through our property every day or so; some weeks we see them every day while sometimes they may not visit for three or four days. Their movements are not migration; their home range or territory is far larger than the local magpies, perhaps ten or more hectares in size.

White Winged Choughs

Some species we only see in the summer time. Rainbow Bee-eaters are a good example of this. During the cooler winter months they migrate to warmer places in northern Australia. In summer they migrate south and we have recorded them nesting on our property on a few occasions.

Rainbow Bee eater

Click on the photos to enlarge the image.

More explanations of the meanings of words  to do with birds can be found in my Glossary of Birding words.