An article on bird migration in an issue of National GeographicNational Geographic, August 1979, pp. 154-193; provides a reminder to look beyond ourselves to discover broader capacities, above earth-bound concepts. The article cites the great distances birds fly in migration and their precise knowledge of how, where, and when they are going. Some set their course by the sun.
Blackpoll warblers fly nonstop over water during migration for an average of eighty-six hours and cover a distance of more than 2,300 miles, sometimes flying at the cold, oxygen-thin altitude of 21,000 feet to find favorable winds.
Ornithologists have discovered that pigeons see not only normal light but polarized and ultraviolet light; and they hear ultralow-frequency noises that carry long distances. A bird flying above the Mississippi Valley, the article reports, may hear a thunderstorm above the Rockies or a heavy surf at Cape Hatteras. Birds' navigational "instruments" are not understood yet. But one ornithologist concluded: "Birds are not living in the same sensory world that we live in. They are hearing, seeing, and sensing a world expanded from ours."
