A number of authorities agree that birds do not get any special storm warnings before a hurricane that allow them to avoid it.
In fact, bird-watchers find that oceanic birds often fly before the winds of a hurricane and end up far from their tropical homes.
For example, sooty terns may be swept from Florida and the Caribbean and deposited on Long Island. After flying for days without feeding, the birds drop as soon as the hurricane reaches land, often exhausted and starving.
As for land birds, all have their own territories, even in winter, and tend to stay there, seeking any shelter they can find, as they would in any storm.
A migrating bird may turn back to land when it hits the bad weather on the fringes of a hurricane.
There is almost certainly an increase in mortality in a hurricane because of exposure to heavy rains. In terms of the survival of bird species, only late nesters would be in serious trouble.
By the time fall hurricanes arrive, most birds have completed the raising of their young.
