: How do birds know to migrate to the same spot every year?
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This is a hard question as from what I know, we cannot fully understand exactly how they manage to do this but I’m going to give my best.
The ELI5 is that birds use Earth’s magnetic field in order to guide them, very similar to how a compass works.
They know when to do this based on the changes in weather, the decrease of the day light and some say that they also take into account the diminishing amount of food that they have in their area.
Some scientists that have followed birds migration say that they even rely on smell as well as landmarks that they have previously seen in their migration path, however, different species behave in different ways. Some have a more preferred pathway while others use a broader front.
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