# Birds at night? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 13, 2019, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-at-night/831041 "2019-03-13T02:16:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-at-night/831041/1 "2019-03-13T02:16:06Z")
I’m posting this here because I’m not confident that I can give enough information to get a factual answer. Are there birds that fly at night abreast of each other? I was standing on my patio last night around midnight. I happened to look up to see a line of 12 to 15 objects going across the sky very roughly from west to east. They weren’t pinpoints of light such as you would see observing a transiting satellite. They were larger “blobs”. Lightly colored in appearance, somewhat dim, I would have never noticed them except by chance. The moved across the about 4/5 of the sky before disappearing. They were traveling as I said earlier, in a rough line abreast, but not a perfect line. I didn’t hear any sounds, there were no blinking lights like you would see on aircraft. My thinking is birds, illuminated from below by city lights. So what birds fly at night in a line like that? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-at-night/831041/2 "2019-03-13T02:33:30Z")
Maybe ask a mod to move this to GQ. Some migratory birds fly at night. It’s around that time of year for that. **Colibri** can give you tons more info. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-at-night/831041/3 "2019-03-13T03:12:29Z")
Canada geese? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-at-night/831041/4 "2019-03-13T03:25:48Z")
A lot of birds do migrate at night. In fact, this can lead to mass mortality when they collide with lights or illuminated buildings. It’s hard to say what those birds might have been without more information. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-at-night/831041/5 "2019-03-13T03:59:59Z")
Yeah, that’s why I put this in IMHO not GQ. I wondered about geese, but, I didn’t think they flew at night. Unfortunately all the info I can give is in the op. I dunno, maybe it was Canadian Geese. We do have a population of them around here that calls this part of Idaho their “summer home”. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-at-night/831041/6 "2019-03-13T04:17:34Z")
Apparently, surprisingly large numbers of bird migrate at night - I’ve heard about interesting experiments to estimate how many by counting those that pass in front of a full moon, and extrapolating across the sky from there. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-at-night/831041/7 "2019-03-13T05:06:42Z")
> [@guestchaz](#): > > I wondered about geese, but, I didn’t think they flew at night. Unfortunately all the info I can give is in the op. Yes, [they migrate at night.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/03/01/why-do-canadian-geese-fly-at-night/#26d054874c16) But they might just be moving locally, and not really migrating. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-at-night/831041/8 "2019-03-13T07:20:57Z")
Huh. I thought that birds we usually think of as daytime creatures have poor night vision, and wouldn’t be able to navigate. Is that maybe just the raptors, like hawks? What birds typically migrate at night, that we usually see during the day? Do they shift their sleep cycle, or just pull all-nighters like college students during exam week? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-at-night/831041/9 "2019-03-13T12:00:15Z")
We were sitting on our porch one summer evening enjoying various adult intoxicants with friends when one of them pointed out how it was very dark, yet the sky was still filled with birds. I casually corrected her, pointing out that they were bats (we have a few bat houses and do what we can to help their populations). She screamed, jumped up, and ran into the house. I did not know that she had an extreme bat phobia. ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-at-night/831041/10 "2019-03-13T12:27:00Z")
Lots of birds fly locally at night - I routinely see gulls and pelicans flying over. Sometimes a swarm of grackles will fill the sky, presumably their chosen night roost was disturbed.