Actually seeing migration is tough right and I didn't see migration but I

heard it that night and that all that'll always stay with me there's no

denying it we humans largely operate under the light of the sun but as the sun

sets and we go to bed another shift begins while we sleep depending on the

time of the year the skies come alive and they have a story to tell are you

ready to listen? I'm Jacob Job and you're listening to scientific Americans

science quickly

each spring billions of migratory birds take wing in an annual ritual that

carries them from their wintering grounds to their breeding grounds come

fall adult birds with offspring reverse course and head back to their

winter homes birds have been migrating for at least hundreds of thousands of

years our understanding of this phenomenon is relatively recent however early

speculation suggested that the seasonal exodus of birds was best explained by

some pretty far out there hypotheses dating back to at least the 11th century

was the idea that some geese temporarily transformed themselves into

barnacles that clung to the sides of ships a 16th century Swedish priest

hypothesized that some birds dove down underwater only to pass the winter in

the relatively warm mud at the bottom of lakes a century later another member of

the clergy even suggested that birds escape the cold of winter by hitching a ride

on the wind to the moon over time and with slightly more careful observation it

became clear that birds were indeed seasonally hitching rides on the wind but

not to nose dive into lake mud or escape Earth's gravity for far off

...