Natures wonders: Amazing bird migration (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, April 01, 2015, 14:41 (3522 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

Tony: I would be interested to know exactly how much of that is fat, and how much is water. I suspect that the former is much more prominent then the latter. My hyposthesis is that that gather water from the air during flight, which gives them that much more room to store face, which is lighter.-These migrations are amazing. Bulking up with fat is necessary to cover the distances over water that are flown. Some species actually bulk up muscles, but do it hormonally, not by extra exercise which would burn the needed fat calories. For those who think migrations developed naturally by imitation of a first attempter, questions arise: how did the bird decide where and how far to go? Over ocean how did the bird know where he islands were? ( Alaska to Hawaii, as an example) How did he recognize the need to prepare with extra fat and muscle? As for your thoughts about water, as fat is burned CO2 is given off and the other product is water. I suspect they can travel several days without dehydrating.