Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mephisto!prism!sun13!sandee
From: sandee@sun13.scri.fsu.edu (Daan Sandee)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Hitch-hiking migrants
Keywords: Hummingbirds
Message-ID: <353@sun13.scri.fsu.edu>
Date: 3 Aug 90 12:11:50 GMT
References: <510@safn2.UUCP>
Organization: SCRI, Florida State University
Lines: 22

In article <510@safn2.UUCP> jbm@safn2.UUCP (John McClatchey) writes:
>.... The story was that some hummingbirds have
>been verified "riding" geese and other large birds
>across the Gulf of Mexico.  Is this true? a joke?
>an old wives tale?  It does seem very difficult to
>figure out how a hummingbird could travel across the
>Gulf without eating, since it has such a rapid
>metabolism.  I would think it might "run out of gas".

This is a well-known myth, and science has found no basis in fact.
Actually, I can't think of any large migrant that routinely crosses the
Gulf on Mexico ; but the same myth exists in Europe, where songbirds are
suppose to piggyback on geese crossing the North Sea. There, also, it
has remained purely a myth.
While many warblers cross the Gulf non-stop (some even may fly non-stop
from Maine to South America, over the Atlantic), the ruby-throated 
hummingbird mostly island-hops. (All other North American hummingbirds
migrate by land). And apparently it can stock up enough energy to make it.

Daan Sandee                                           sandee@sun16.scri.fsu.edu
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052  (904) 644-7045