The stork flew 3,200 km with an arrow piercing its neck to help solve the mystery

For centuries, Europeans didn’t really know where birds went in winter. There are many other concerns that keep them from investigating the disappearance of other species. For example, it is difficult to focus on the problem “Where do birds go?” while struggling to fight the epidemic.

The most prominent theory, which has existed since the time of Aristotle and ancient Greece, is that birds hibernate during the cold season and summer redstarts turn into robins in winter, and garden warblers turn into black-capped warblers. . As odd as it sounds, they are still better than some other theories. For example, 17th-century British scientist Charles Morton believed that birds flew to the Moon in winter, flying for 60 days at a speed of 201 km/h.

Even stranger is the idea mentioned in Homer’s epic Iliad. Accordingly, every year, cranes will fly south to continue the ongoing war with “dwarfs” after a long vacation away from violence. Roman philosopher Pliny the elder even wrote that “dwarves” would ride on sheep to attack cranes and eat their eggs to control their numbers, while the cranes would attack back fiercely.

These theories show that Europeans once had great difficulty solving the mystery of where birds go during the cold season. But then, they received an explanation that “fell from the sky”.

In 1822, near the German village of Klütz, people found a white stork with a 76 cm long arrow pierced through its neck. It was still alive because the arrow only penetrated the skin. This weapon was determined to be made from African wood, suggesting that the stork flew 3,200 km to Africa in the winter, then returned to Germany, where it was killed and stuffed.

The Germans later continued to find other storks with arrows piercing their bodies and called them Pfeilstorch or “Arrow Stork”. This helps confirm migratory behavior, eliminating the odd idea that they turn into different birds each season.

Birds migrate often to move from areas with few or decreasing resources to areas with abundant or increasing resources. The two main resources they seek are food and nesting sites.

Birds nesting in the Northern Hemisphere tend to migrate north in the spring to take advantage of thriving insect populations, budding trees, and an abundance of nesting sites. As winter approaches, insects and other food sources decrease, and birds migrate south again. Escaping cold weather is a driving factor in migratory behavior. But many species, including hummingbirds, can withstand extremely cold temperatures, as long as there are enough food sources.