On 25/03/2021 4:02 pm, Philip wrote:
Maryanne,
Does your bird have access to a view of the sky? If it is in an enclosure that does, and it starts consistently directing its activities towards the northern
part of the aviary (and it is able to feed itself), then it is ready to go. This behaviour has been known since 1950s, in at least some migratory birds (not this species of course). Actually it would be interesting to know if it shows this zugunruhe behaviour
at day time or at night time (if at all). Maybe they migrate at night. Would not surprise me if it happens at night. It took me a while to find this word. I tried several books to find it without success. I knew it was a German word but I forgot how to spell
it. I thought it was zeigenruhe. Sad to say internet got a result, when the first 6 of 7 books I checked didn’t – the 7th did. See for example
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zugunruhe
Philip
My 2-cents worth: I first encountered the word zugunruhe when reading Bernd Heinrich’s book,
The homing instinct: the story of homing and migration, some years ago. Heinrich attributes the word to one Gustav Kramer, a German ornithologist and defines it as “pre-migration restlessness”. So it would seem a good word to have in one’s ornithological
literary arsenal. ACT Public Library holds two copies of The homing instincts, and if you’re interested, it’s a good read.
John Layton
Holt.
