What do birds do during hurricanes?

Tatum Meadows
Ms. Skelton's 5th grade class
Morris Avenue Intermediate School
Opelika

Dear Tatum,

In a hurricane, songbirds find perches in bushes and trees that provide cover and just hang on. Remarkably few land birds seem to be killed directly by wind and flying debris in hurricanes. Many people say the day after a hurricane passes that birds are back on their branches singing. Generally, songbirds are harmed more by having trees stripped of their fruits and by high winds. Leaves provide food for caterpillars and other insects that birds eat, and many birds probably die of starvation after a severe hurricane passes.

For seabirds hurricanes can have a much more direct effect. There is no place for birds on the seashore or open ocean to hide from a huge storm. Scientists don't really know what most seabirds do in a hurricane-they probably fly out of the storm's path even if that means a flight of hundreds of miles - but we know that some individuals of almost all species of seabirds get swept far inland by hurricanes. Hurricane Ivan in October 2004 produced one of the most notable ornithological (ornithology is the study of birds) events ever recorded in Alabama. Large numbers of birds normally found only out in the ocean or at the seashore were seen inland from Greenville to Birmingham to Eufaula. On the morning after Ivan I saw an amazing array of seabirds moving down the Chattahoochee River at Eufaula trying to get back to the ocean after being blown hundreds of miles inland. The flocks of seabirds included a Wilson's Storm Petrel, a bird that normally would not come within sight of land. No one knows what percentage of such displaced birds make it back to the ocean but many are eventually found dead.
Hurricanes spell trouble for man and bird alike, but they are a part of the natural weather cycle in this part of the world.

Thanks for your question,
Aubie and Dr. Hill