Wood duck, Quebec, Canada

© Maxime Riendeau/Getty Image

It's time to wing it!. World Migratory Bird Day

Celebrate our traveling feathered friends on World Migratory Bird Day! Some migrations are truly astounding. The bar-tailed godwit embarks on a nearly 7,000-mile nonstop flight across the Pacific from Alaska to New Zealand. The tiny ruby-throated hummingbird, weighing less than a nickel, makes the trip all the way across the Gulf of Mexico. Migratory birds navigate the globe, instinctively knowing when and where to move to exploit seasonal abundance. The Arctic tern outshines them all with its intercontinental journey from pole to pole, covering roughly 25,000 miles in its annual round trip.

Let's take a moment to admire the vibrant plumage of the wood duck, photographed in Quebec, Canada. Wood ducks nest in tree cavities close to water and sometimes take advantage of human-made boxes. During the breeding season, from February to April, you'll find the females laying 7–15 eggs. From the eastern and western United States and southern Canada, these ducks migrate southward in the fall to avoid harsh winter conditions. By October and November, they move towards milder climates in the southeastern US and occasionally into Mexico.