It's not often that I write about geography or maps, but our team here at Data Transfer Solutions primarily develops Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software for making maps.  But we're not the only ones making maps these days.  There is a little, otherwise nondescript, bird known as the white-crowned sparrow that doesn't need any help at all from software or computers to make maps.  These little birds summer in Alaska and winter in Mexico and the southwestern United States.  And scientists have recently proved that during their long migration, they navigate using maps.  Yes maps...and they create the maps themselves! 

According to a recent article in Smithsonian Magazine, a research team captured a group of adult and juvenile these birds in Washington State and flew them to New Jersey.  After placing radio collars on their backs, the birds were released.  The adults headed straight toward their usual wintering grounds in the American southwest.  The juveniles, who were making their very first migration, head due south toward Florida. 

How did the adults know where to fly?  The researchers say that the sparrows instinctively fly due south on their first migration and along the way, they build a mental map of their wintering grounds that allows them to return there from any other location.  The adults had a mental map of their flyway and were able to follow it to return their wintering grounds.  So, how's that for an avian cartographer (that's a bird map maker to the rest of us)?