Breathe
By Edmée Pardo
How do birds find their way across oceans, deserts and mountains, without maps or compasses, without words to guide them? By reading. It sounds incredible, but birds read. It is the best way to explain their innate ability to orient themselves in the world, a gift that goes beyond intelligence and allows them to perceive and interpret the routes of the earth and the sky. A form of reading that is done with an amazing combination of instinct, visual and olfactory memory, and sensory skills that evolved over millions of years.
One of the main mechanisms birds use to navigate is the earth's magnetic field. This field, invisible and imperceptible to us, is a subtle map that birds can read with their bodies. It is said that some species of migratory birds have specialized cells in their brains and eyes containing iron particles that act as small compasses, allowing them to sense the orientation of the magnetic field and helping them to fly in the right direction. Also, like ancient navigators, migratory birds use star patterns to chart their course. At night, they adjust their flight based on the rotation of the night sky, remembering the positions of the stars and aligning their route with them. During the day, they do so as sunlight changes their position, a feat that involves precise memory and an understanding of the passage of time.
Some birds, especially those that make repeated migrations, remember the landscapes they pass through. Mountains, rivers, coasts and other geographic formations are like landmarks that help them follow their course. They even remember scents and sounds of specific places, drawing a multisensory map in their minds that allows them to navigate without error. Perhaps the bird that has impressed me the most is the one that releases the seeds of the fruit it eats so that the next migration will have germinated and they will have to eat, thus planting their food from the previous year and following the route of their sowings. Winds and air currents are also part of this complex orientation system and their wings take advantage of favorable currents or correct their course if the wind diverts them.
In many species these skills are not simply instinctive, but also learned. Young birds, when flying for the first time, follow the more experienced birds, observing and memorizing the routes. Over time, these routes become engraved in their memory, and then they themselves will lead future generations through the skies.
Birds, in their journey, map the world in ways that they continue to investigate and in their flight they remind us that nature has an alphabet only they can read.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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