Any ornithologists among us? Question re: hummingbirds.

[Atticus]

I have never seen a "flock" of hummers. How do this year's newly hatched know where to migrate to. From Illinois, I believe our ruby-thoateds fly across the gulf to central America. Further east, I believe they go to Cuba.

How do youngsters find their way?

[elleng]

1. Dunno, I do ospreys.

Check the Birders group.

[KT2000]

2. Many of ours stay all year long

I don't know how they do it but I see them in the winter - NW Washington state.

[dweller]

3. magnetoreception

https://www.sciencealert.com/birds-see-magnetic-fields-cryptochrome-cry4-photoreceptor-2018

✌🏻

[Atticus]

4. Thank you! Count not the day lost. nt

[Pobeka]

7. And, for a bonus -- foxes have it too.

Only discovered in the past 5 or 6 years I think.

They found out by noticing that foxes tended to be N-S directional when diving for prey beneath the snow, which made them wonder how they could be so precise, and then make the linkage to the eye.

Blew my mind that someone even recorded the direction that foxes jumped in the first place.

[LakeArenal]

5. There was a PBS special called (I think)...

Birds of Wisconsin in which many migrating birds of Wisconsin go to Costa Rica. Including and especially hummingbirds.

One reason why we moved here from WI.

[RainCaster]

6. In Seattle, we get hummers that migrate from Mexico to Alaska

Amazing creatures. That's the Rufous hummingbirds, BTW.