Carrol Henderson Challenge Questions Today's News Spring's Journey North Report Your Sightings Teacher's Manual Search Journey North return to: A/CPB

Background Report Migrating Orioles, Leaf-Out and Unpave the Way Projects to Journey North! (See Below) When the oriole returns to its nest in your backyard this spring, it will have just completed a remarkable round trip journey to Central America and back! Pilot the orioles' return journey and learn what it takes for these - and other species of "neotropical" migrants - to successfully complete this amazing flight. Neotropical migrants are birds that breed in North America and winter south of the U.S. border. An amazing 333 bird species migrate according to this pattern. Map by Macalester College This story will begin with a report from the neotropical migrants' wintering grounds in Central America. As songbirds cross the Gulf of Mexico on their annual nonstop flight, a scientist will give students real-time weather lessons and explore the effect of weather on migration. As the journey continues, students across North America will report backyard sightings when the orioles and hummingbirds return. Student activities will run the spectrum, from geography and math to the physical and life sciences. They will explore the physiology of flight, analyze banding data, learn about population dynamics, and participate in an on-line opinion poll surrounding conservation issues. What to Report to Journey North 1. Report the FIRST Oriole you see this spring. 2. Report that you've helped to "Unpave-the-Way" for orioles, as soon as you place your nectar feeder outside. We'll include your site on our habitat map! See Unpave-the-Way for Wildlife. 3. Report "leaf-out" of your deciduous trees. Here's why: For many songbird species, the timing of spring migration may be related to leaf-out. This is because when leaves emerge, so do lots of insects. Songbirds may fuel their migration by following the leaf-out, and eating the millions of insects available at that time. With your help, we'd like to test whether these spring events are inter-related.