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Apparently Alastair wrote: "My
understanding is that while you have mentioned Noisy Friarbirds on the move in
the context of honeyeater migration, friarbirds are not migrants in the true
sense of the word (i.e. moving from cooler to warmer), rather they move between areas of flowering eucalypts, which may
take them in any direction."
That is a novel idea. I had not at all thought of migration being just
about moving from cooler to warmer. That is a possibility
but at best a very narrow view. In general it is regular movements of most
or all of populations from one place to another. If the birds wanted the warm,
they would be sedentary in the tropics. Most of the international or
trans-equatorial migrants move to follow the patterns of longer day length. The
Arctic Tern, which goes the furthest, by-passes the warmth, to go towards the
poles. As for the Friarbirds, whilst position is not always regular, timing of
movements generally is.
Philip
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