Not All Birds Fly South for the Winter
If you live in NYC, you know pigeons watch the ball drop from Times Square with the rest of the tourists. Pigeons aside, we learn in school that birds fly south for the winter. So what’s going on?
via Smithsonian
Looking outside on a cold December morning you might see a Savannah sparrow or an American goldfinch flit by. In fact, many of Virginia’s grassland and shrubland birds stick around for the winter.
Long-term data shows that grassland birds — birds that depend on landscapes dominated by grasses and herbaceous flowering plants — are disappearing faster than any other bird group in North America. And while the eastern U.S. may not spring to mind when you think of grasslands, its pastures provide an important winter refuge.