Amazing Animals: Migratory Birds

Amazing Animals: Migratory Birds

Here's another article in our series of amazing animals that give living testimony to the absolute need for a Creator and Designer.

"Mysteries of Great Migrations" is the cover story of the November 2010 issue of National Geographic magazine. The cover poses the question, "What Guides Them into the Unknown?" A three-page fold-out photo spread shows half a million sandhill cranes pausing in Nebraska fields during their migration flight.

Quoting from the author's introduction, he asks "What it it that makes animal migration such a magnificent spectacle for the eye and the mind? ...Is it the amazing feats of precise navigation? ...One biologist has noted the 'undistractibility' of migrating animals. A non-scientist risking anthropomorphism [attributing human characteristics to animals], might say: Yes, they have a sense of larger purpose."¹

Evolutionists claim that birds evolved from reptiles and that dinosaurs are their ancestors. However, there is no comparison or fossil evidence of a transition from simple reptilian scales to the complex feathers of a bird. "Evolution cannot explain why feathers would have developed from scales for flight and then developed a new developmental pathway to form them."²

A sparrow, one of the most common birds, is a very good flyer. It's brain can adjust, turn, raise, and lower its individual feathers as small as one degree, enabling it to navigate through trees and bushes without bumping anything. Dr. Jobe Martin declares that "sparrows are made to fly."³ Some sparrows migrate to warmer climates for the winter and others do not.

Dr. Russ DeFusco, an orinthologist (a scientist who studies birds), states that "Man has never been able to approach the efficiency of birds in terms of the ability to fly with airplanes and other machines."⁴ In fact, as Ray Comfort states in his book Nothing Created Everything, "we have the miracle of flight now because the Wright brothers copied God's handiwork. They watched as birds twisted their wings in flight and how they used their tails as rudders. If God hadn't given the Wright brothers clues through His creation, we would probably still be grounded today."⁵

Amazing Facts About Bird Migration:

• No animal travels farther than the Arctic tern. It flies back and forth between the Arctic and Antarctic each year for a round trip of 44,000 miles.⁶
• Peregrine falcons, found on all continents except Antarctica, may migrate distances greater than 15,500 miles. Design features such as hollow bones, a lightweight beak, and air sacs that connect to the airway, "along with its feathers and wing structure make it a capable flyer."⁷
• A barn swallow, with its wingspan of only 13 inches, may travel 6,390 miles from Scandinavia to the southern tip of Africa.⁸
• Swainson's hawks travel as far as 8,200 miles between southern Canada and the southern part of Argentina. Their eyesight is seven times sharper than a human's. ⁹
• "Canada (Canadian) geese migrate up to 3,000 miles each fall, returning in the spring to essentially the same nesting grounds where they had originally hatched."¹⁰

Bruce Malone asks, "Even if the young learn this skill from their parents, how did the first goose know it was warmer in the south? Who taught geese to fly in a "V" pattern, which provides trailing birds witha significant lift advantage? ...How do they know how to navigate through unknown territory to reach their desired destination? ...Creation acknowledges that these advanced skills, which seem to be implanted in an animal's consciousness, were placed there by the same entity which formed the physical structure of the animal's body. Thus instincts perfectly match an animal's needs and abilities."¹¹

As Ray Comfort says, "How blind we are to the absolute genius of God."¹²

"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" - Matthew 6:26

"On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches." - Ezekiel 17:23 (NIV)

Sources / Where You Can Learn More:
David Quammen, "Mysteries of Great Migrations," National Geographic magazine, November 2010.⁽¹⁾
Roger Patterson, Evolution Exposed, Answers in Genesis, 2007, 45-47.⁽²⁾
Dr. Jobe Martin, Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution II, Exploration Films, 2002.^(3,4)
Ray Comfort, "Bird Brain," Nothing Created Everything, WND Books, 2009, 169-171.^(5,12)
"Great Migrations" poster, National Geographic magazine, November 2010.^(6,8,9)
Zoo Guide: a Bible-based Handbook to the Zoo, Answers in Genesis, 2006.⁽⁷⁾
Bruce Malone, Censored Science: The Suppressed Evidence, Search for the Truth Publications, 2009, 44-45.^(10,11)

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