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Short Stuff: Bird Migration · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh. There's Chuck.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Jerry's here too, sitting him for Dave. So let's go
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: with short stuff. Go go. This is something I'm surprised
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: we haven't covered uh succinctly. We may have talked about
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: it before here and there, but uh, the idea and
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: I literally thought of this because I saw a flock
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: of birds flying in that beautiful V pattern, A flock
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: of seagulls. Oh I wish, because you know they run
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: so far away, uh flying, And I was like, where
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: are those guys going and what are they doing? And
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: how do they know? It seems a little late, like
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: why are you doing it now? And how do you
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: know how to get there? It turns out we know
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the answers to some of these questions, and we're talking
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: about bird migration. Uh. And this comes from our old
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: friends at house stuff works dot com and Aliyah Hoyt,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: who did, I think a really great job writing a
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: very succinct article on this cool topic. You should go
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: check it out and read it there. But um, the
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: notion about birds flying south for the winter, we should
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: say right off the bat is like, that's just a
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: very um sort of lazy way of putting it, because
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: there are more than nine species of birds, and so
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: you you're just saying birds flying south. You can't just
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: say that about all birds because not all birds do
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: fly south. No, Um, they don't. But the ones that
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: do fly south are incredibly fascinating because, like you said,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: all those questions you have, we have a lot of
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: answers to and um, the urge to migrate has a
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: name even. That's one of the things I love about
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: this chuck. There's some great terms hidden within. It is
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: a great band name too, by the way, migratory restlessness, okay,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: photo period, those are okay, I'm gonna give them all away, okay,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: but the the the natural urge, UM, I would guess
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: an unconscious urge too. If you're a bird, UM to
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: migraine is called my gratory restlessness. And a lot of
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: times they chalk it up to a change in the
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: length of the day, which is called the photo period.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: That's right. I don't think we said about sevent of
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: birds do migrate, and um, it's kind of like two
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: buckets on why you would this is that first bucket,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: which is the daylight kind of giving them a queue
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: and This means that there, um, the daylight is giving
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: them the que they're not flying south because like it's
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: getting a little bit chilly and the worms aren't quite
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: what they used to be. But it's more like, hey,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: the the daylight is changing. That's a signal to me.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: That means we are known as band name obligate migrants. Okay,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: that's a good one. Pretty good. Yeah. That means that
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: nature is commanding you to go migrate. You're this isn't
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: any choice that you're making. This is just part of
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: who you are. You migrate as a member of this
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: bird species. Yes, and if you're an obligatet migrant, you
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: probably opened up for the talking heads in the eighties,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: it would be my guess. So the good thing about
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: obligate migrants is because it's so hardwired, their behavior is
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: very predictable and easily studied. Um, Like, the the distance
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: they travel is going to be basically the same year
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: after year, generation after generation. When they go is going
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: to be about the same. When they come back, it's
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: going to be about the same. They're just extraordinarily dependable, right. Yeah.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: The ones that you can't count on at all are
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: the facultative migrants. And I said it right, I didn't
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: just add an extra syllable. Yeah, not nearly as good
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: of a band name. For that reason. It's a little clunky.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: It is ted clunky. But these are the ones that
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: migrate because they have to. They're really lazy as far
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: as migration goes. Uh yeah, I mean they're the ones
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: that take the cues around them. I kind of like
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: them because they're not like, I'm just gonna do it
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: because the daylight says so. They do it because food
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: might be getting short, or it might be getting a
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: little chilly for them or whatever. Uh um. And they
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: basically know we can't stick around here, so let's hit
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the road, right or hit the hit the sky. They're
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: kind of like the surfers of migrating birds. That's right,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: I like that. Should we break now? Oh yeah, jeez, alright,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: this is the shorty of my friend. Let's get back
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: to it in a minute. Okay, Well, now we're on
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: the road, driving in your truck. Want to learn a
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: thing or two from Josh and Chuck it stuff you
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: should know. All right, Okay, Chuck, let's get back to it.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Answer how far do they migrate? Josh, what's the number
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: how many miles. Well, if you ask Dr Andrew Farnsworth,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Cornell Lab of ornithal g the metrics are all over
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: the ballpark. Exclamation point. How stuff works. Talk to Dr
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Farnsworth and by the way, I can't say enough about
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: how stuff works, chuck. So Dr Farnsworth says that depending
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: on the birds, the species. I never thought about this,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: they may not really move anywhere as far as like
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: a human would think of it. If they live like
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: on a mountain, they are probably going to stay on
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the mountain. They just might change altitude, like you know,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: a few hundred meters this way, a few that way. Um,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: it makes a huge difference depending on the season. And
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: that counts as migration. I love that one. Sure, they
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: might stay in the same region or the same area,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: they might stay in the same state. Uh. And just
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: you know, here in Georgia you could migrate just a
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: little further south in the winter and have some very
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: nice weather. Yeah, there's a pretty big difference between North
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Georgia and South Georgia weather wise. Yeah. Time or you
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: could really get on your horse or your wing and
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: your migration maybe like truly epic. Uh. And I guess
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: we should talk about the most epics, the Arctic Arctic.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: That word the Arctic turn. Uh, they go from poll
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: to poll, they go from the Antarctic to the Arctic.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: And that's the last time I have to say that.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: And that is a round trip of close to nineteen
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: thousand miles or thirty thousand clicks? Can I say clicks? Sure? Okay,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I didn't know what that was bad, because do you
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: think of Vietnam. I don't know who else called it clicks.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: That's what I associated with, but I only heard it
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: in Vietnam War movies. I didn't know if that was
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: a bad thing. Anyway. Let's just call it kilometers. And
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: that is the largest or rather the longest migration on
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: planet Earth for anything, Yeah, any animal whatsoever. It's pretty
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: pretty impressive. Um. I found one called the bar tailed Godwit.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: They hold the record for the longest NonStop flight of
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: let's hear it. They fly NonStop over sixty hundred miles
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: from Alaska to New Zealand without rest. Wow. Can you imagine? Yeah,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: that's a real reaction. By the way, we don't Sometimes
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: we'll surprise each other with facts. Just sometimes we're being coy.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah you thought I was gonna bust out something about
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: the Black Pole War war blurs didn't. No, No, I
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: know you'd have something new for me. So that was
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: that was a real reaction everyone. I'm not that good actor,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: that's true. Appreciate that set me up for that, Oh
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: of course I did. Um. So the destination is kind
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: of the last piece, like whether or not they migrate
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: or not, how far they migrate, and now like where
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: are they going to go? And this one is really
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: interesting because they don't know for sure and they're trying
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: to answer these questions. But there are a lot of
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: super cool ideas about it. And one really cool sort
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: of side note to this is some species of bird
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: will go to the same place every single year, just
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: like you're going on a vacation, and they'll have the
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: same rest stops every year, just like you might on
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: a vacation. Yeah, they'll actually learn landmarks to follow. And yeah,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: that's pretty cool because that means that if you see
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: some Canadian geese in your backyard one year, you're probably
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: going to see them the next year and so on
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: and so forth. That's cool. Um. They also think that
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: there's just a number of redundant systems that basically allow
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: birds to navigate. UM. One of them apparently is learning
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: how to navigate by the stars by constellations. Pretty impressive
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: for a bird. UM. They also can use the sun
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: to orient themselves. But then they have other um, they
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: believe they have other onboard equipment, like an ability to
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: see the Earth's electromagnetic field and orient themselves that way. Yeah,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: and you said, see like some birds may sense it,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: but they actually think that some birds there's a theory
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: that some have a special pigment that literally lets them
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: see it. Yeah, which is wild to think about. I
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: would love to see that. I guarantee in the next
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: fifty to seventy years, we're gonna have all sorts of
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: ways to see like uv um, to see magnetic fields,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: just to see all sorts of just to experience the
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: world in different ways that we aren't even thinking of
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: right now. Guarantee it's going to be like a huge pathtime. Yeah.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Or put on those special glasses and someone's clothes are
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: off X ray glasses. Yeah, good idea, we're gonna make
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: a million bucks off of that. Did you ever see
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: the uh Ricky Gervais show extras? Uh, there's a great
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: bit online that you should look up. Just a scene
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: with Patrick Stewart, Sir Patrick Stewart, where he's Ricky Gervais
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: goes in his trailer and this is a short one
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: so I can tell the story real quick. Uh, Ricky
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Gervais goes in his trailer. He's an extra in movies
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: and TV shows. That's the whole premise of the show.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: And he seeks some advice. He's like, I'm just an
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: extra and like, you know, I'm trying to write screenplays
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: and make my own way inswer Patrick's where it like
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: really bonds with him. He's like, yeah, I'm I'm writing
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: my own screenplays as well. And his big idea is
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: that he is like, uh, has superpower is that he
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: can make a woman's clothes just fallow right off their body.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: And Ricky Gervais keeps keeps it going like and you know,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: and then what happens and you know, and then like
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: trying to get to some further plat point, but Patrick
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Stewart just keeps saying, and you know, there's a police officer.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: She comes up and I just look at her and
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: her clothes just come right off and I can see everything.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: It's hilarious. It's really funny. It's that in the Liam
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Neeson scene from Extra Spot just classic. What's hilarious is
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: that idea is basically the basis of Zapped that Scott
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: bay Vie from the eighties. Sure. Maybe, Sir Patrick Stewart
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: wrote that maybe or is a big fan of it
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: and writed it all you never know. Uh, I think, Chuck,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: I'm sensing like a bird can sense Earth's magnetic field.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: That short stuff is apt. You're correct. Radio Stuff you
• 11:03
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• 11:06
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