LiD paragraph #12

          Bailey Lebreton

                12-4-13

              12 paragraph for LiD

#12

     Birds migrate to find food or for breeding purposes. They will travel many miles to do this. This is because of weather changes which limit their access to food.  More than 650 different types of birds live in North America. Some will live in the same place year-round, but most of the species are migratory. Meaning, they move from one place to the other. So, they don’t always migrate. Some birds like humming birds, can survive below freezing, as long as there is food available. Before migrating, the birds will eat and double their body weight, because they will lose 1% of their body weight an hour.  “It is estimated that 20 billion birds will attempt to migrate, but only about half will make it to their destination.”  I watched a video on You Tube that told about birds that migrate and don’t survive because they run into man made buildings. Some birds fly into airplanes and some lose their way because of too much “light pollution.”  They get lost because too much light keeps them from seeing stars that help them navigate. The birds spend most of their time down in central and South America during winter. These birds can migrate from 100 to 7,000 miles in a few weeks to several months.