Citizen Science Salon is a partnership between Discover and SciStarter.org.
For many of us, the sound of fall is defined by honking geese overhead and the calls of familiar songbirds in our yards. Every year, billions of birds, bats and insects take to the air in an ancient migration that leads them from the northern reaches of our continent to more temperate climates in the south.
Scientists have understood the basics of these pilgrimages since at least 1822. That’s when a German hunter killed a stork and was startled to find an African spear lodged in the bird’s neck, providing the first direct evidence of its epic, transcontinental migration. Our understanding of migrations has come a long way since then.
We know where most species spend their winters and summers. And longstanding, on-the-ground observations from birders and researchers have even helped suss out changes over time. But researchers are still trying to answer a surprising number of fundamentals about these aerial movements, like what drives the animals to take flight in the first place.
