United States, while others, including the vesper and chipping 

 sparrows, common grackle, red-winged blackbird, eastern bluebird, 

 American woodcock, and several species of ducks, nest much farther 

 south in the United States and Canada and move south a relatively 

 short distance for the winter to areas along the Gulf of Mexico. In a 

 few of the more hardy species, individuals may linger in protected 

 places well within reach of severe cold. The common snipe, for 

 example, is frequently found during subzero weather in parts of the 

 Rocky Mountain region where warm springs assure a food supply. 

 More than 100 summer birds leave the United States entirely and 

 spend the winter in the West Indies, Central America, or South 

 America. For example, the Cape May warbler breeds from northern 

 New England, northern Michigan, and northern Minnesota, north to 

 New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and nearly to Great Slave Lake. In 

 winter it is concentrated chiefly in the West Indies on the island of 

 Hispaniola. 



Long Distance Migration 



Some of the common summer residents of North America are not 

 content with a trip to northern tropical areas of the West Indies and 

 Central America, but push on across the Equator and finally come to 

 rest for the winter in Patagonia or the pampas of Argentina. Species 

 such as nighthawks, some barn swallows, cliff swallows, and a few 

 thrushes may occupy the same general winter quarters in Brazil, but 

 other nighthawks and barn swallows go farther south. Of all North 

 American landbirds these species probably travel the farthest; they 

 are found north in summer to the Yukon Territory and Alaska, and 

 south in winter to Argentina, 7,000 miles away. Such seasonal flights 

 are exceeded in length, however, by the remarkable journeys of 

 several species of shorebirds including white-rumped and Baird's 

 sandpipers, greater yellowlegs, turnstones, red knots, and sander- 

 lings. In this group, 19 species breed north of the Arctic Circle and 

 winter in South America; six of these go as far south as Patagonia, a 

 distance of over 8,000 miles. 



The Arctic tern is the champion "globe trotter" and long-distance 

 flier (Fig. 11). Its name "Arctic" is well earned, as its breeding range 

 is circumpolar and it nests as far north as the land extends in North 

 America. The first nest found in this region was only 7-1/2 (518 

 miles) from the North Pole and contained a downy chick surrounded 

 by a wall of newly fallen snow scooped out by the parent. In North 

 America the Arctic tern breeds south in the interior to Great Slave 

 Lake, and on the Atlantic coast to Massachusetts. After the young are 

 grown, the Arctic terns disappear from their North American 

 breeding grounds and turn up a few months later in the Antarctic 

 region, 1 1 ,000 miles away. For a long time the route followed by these 

 hardy fliers was a complete mystery; although a few scattered 

 individuals have been noted south as far as Long Island in the United 

 States, the species is otherwise practically unknown along the 

 Atlantic coasts of North America and northern South America. It is, 



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