Birds perform different migratory practices. They move across different geographies, climates, communities, forests, cities, deserts and seas. According to research from Oikos Journal by the Nordic Ecological Society, over 2 billion birds migrate from Europe to Africa twice a year in one of the most fascinating life performances that connect the two continents. But this number is only half the estimate from the 1950s in the only other assessment to date.
As the birds migrate, they carry out different performances, ecological and artistic. They pick up food in different places, they fertilize others, they make the sky and the land temporary homes. Their migratory journeys are not just moving from point A to point B, rather they perform swirling dances, turning the sky into a dance floor. They fly and land in constant nomadic rituals, which historically inspired many human communities to move as nomads.
Birds follow different nomadic routes, sometimes from as far as northern Europe, and they travel all the way down to central Africa, every year they fly out to destinations marked by climatic and ecological cycles and patterns important for their lives.
They usually migrate for many reasons, to feed, to nest and to make a home, but the search for locations with warmer temperatures suitable for breeding is a primary one. They escape the harsh northern winters and seek warmth more in the south.
As temperatures rise in the northern hemisphere, for example, the birds feel unseasoned warmth, which gives them the false impression of summer arrival and large numbers of them decide not to migrate. This creates disruption to their life cycles and health. It also affects many other ecological practices the birds play in the different ecosystems they visit and come across such as worms, insects, seeds and plants’ life cycles. The delay in bird’s migration also affects aspects of life for some human communities such as the desert nomads.