This is bird note. Each spring, millions of birds depart tropical central and

south America for the temperate climate of North America. The same phenomenon

occurs simultaneously all across Europe and Asia as vast numbers of birds head

north from Africa, Australia, and southern Asia. From as far south as Ecuador,

beautiful scarlet tannagers fly north to nest in the eastern US and Canada,

many traversing the Gulf of Mexico on their way, an arduous journey.

Across much of southern Europe, common nightingales, small thrushes with

russet feathers, are arriving. These legendary singers have traveled northward

from tropical Africa across immense deserts. In northern Asia, petite songbirds known

as Siberian rubythroats are arriving on mass. Some winging their way across the

South China Sea from the Philippines, others over the mountains from Thailand.

These three examples, a tiny sample from among thousands of migratory species,

only hint at the overall grandeur of worldwide avian migration, one of the most

fundamental processes in all of nature.

Get a good look at these three birds and all we feature on bird note. When you

come to our website, birdnote.org. I'm Mary McCann.