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It’s In Your Nature: How far do migrating birds travel?

Published September 27. 2025 09:25AM

So many things in nature fascinate me, but I believe bird migration is the most intriguing.

Most birds that migrate do so because where they do their nesting and breeding is not conducive for them to spend the winter months.

An Eastern pewee or Eastern Kingbird living in a number of areas around the Times News area catch insects, and in particular, flying insects, to survive. They move northward from their wintering areas and arrive here, and some well into Canada, when it is warm enough for insects to be active and available to eat.

Likewise, they, triggered by shortening daylight, begin moving southward before the very cold and freezing temperatures arrive in late autumn. But how far do they, and in particular, a great variety of birds, actually migrate each spring and fall?

A bird I have yet to see, the Arctic tern, makes a round-trip of about 44,000 miles each year. As the name implies, they breed in the regions above the Arctic Circle and migrate all the way to Antarctic to spend the winter there.

Some other bird migrations are much shorter.

A northern junco (which should make its appearance at our feeders in the next two or three weeks) probably only migrated from southern Canada, upper New York state or maybe even Pennsylvania’s northernmost counties.

The American robin is also a shorter migrant, probably only traveling 500 or maybe 1,000 miles to our south.

Eastern bluebirds, almost everyone’s favorite, may or may not migrate. In milder winters I have seen them at my former home in East Penn Township nearly every winter morning. However, when deep snows and bitter cold arrived a few winters, they disappeared for a month or so only to return when that cold spell snapped.

One species that occasionally migrates into our area is the snowy owl. They breed on the arctic tundra across northern Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Russia. Their chief prey are lemmings. Every few years the lemming population crashes, and this prompts their southern treks.

I’ve never seen one in Carbon County, but I did see one in the Brodheadsville area many years ago. A friend and I traveled to Lancaster County (along with a few dozen other birders) to find another. They like rather open spaces, much like their tundra breeding grounds. One found the short grass area along the Lehigh Valley Airport runway to its liking about 25 years ago.

Maybe the most unbelievable migration tracked by biologists was that of a male bar-tailed godwit. It left the tundra of Alaska and flew nonstop for 11 days; no food, water or rest. Its destination was New Zealand, 7,580 miles away. This is another reason I find animals and nature amazing. So, get out there and find your own amazements right here around us …

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: Which one of these owl species migrates? A. great horned owl; B. barred owl; C. saw whet owl; D. Eastern screech owl.

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: Now that almost all the broad-winged hawks have passed through our region, sharp-shinned hawks will be the raptors dominating the counts at Bake Oven Knob through mid-October.

Nature notes: Adding to your info on broad-winged hawk migrations: from Sept. 12 through Sept. 17, official counters at Bake Oven notched 12,453 broadies.

Second note: Look for blue jays migrating for the next three weeks; the last of the catbirds and towhees can still be seen; and look for the last of the phoebes grabbing flying insects before they too move out about the first week of October.

Final note: One last hummer visited our cannas on Sept. 22. I guess she’s on her way to Central America now. I would keep your hummingbird feeders out yet, though. A few years ago one still fed at our feeder on Sept. 28.

Email Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com

The Eastern kingbird, one of our summer flycatchers, migrates to South America, flying mostly at night and feeding during the day. It is unique in that it catches and eats flying bugs here in summer, but in its winter feeding area in South America it turns to a diet of berries and fruits. BARRY REED/SPECIAL TO THE TIMES NEWS
Many/most of the blue jays that nest north of Pennsylvania, in New England or southern Canada, will migrate through our region heading to states just to our south for milder winters. It is possible, though, that the blue jays bullying the birds at your feeders this winter aren’t all local birds.
Red-winged blackbirds, one of the migrants to return here in early March, left our region around August. Their migration is rather short, probably to Delaware, Maryland, Virginia or Tennessee. I photographed a mixed flock of grackles and redwings in a field just south of Dover, Delaware, in early January a few years ago that probably contained 5,000 to 10,000 birds, a huge flock.
Eastern Bluebirds, robins and hermit thrushes are all types of thrushes that are rather hardy birds. This bluebird was photographed in October and probably one of the pair that nested twice in our bluebird box a few years ago. Some winters I’ll see them almost every day. Deep snows could chase them 100 miles south for a while until they venture back to their familiar backyards.
I’m still seeing phoebes in a variety of spots in our area. They, like kingbirds, are flying insect eaters. They often linger well past the first heavy frost or two and then fly several hundred miles south, where they may find emerging insects near streams that have not yet frozen over.
Snowy owls are adapted to extremely cold conditions, but a lack of lemmings or more than usual tundra snowfall can prompt them to migrate. Every few years an irruption occurs and some, usually juveniles like the one in the photo, travel the farthest, sometime 1,000 to 1,500 miles.
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Barry Reed, Environment