Happy World Migratory Bird Day!
But why, in this UN-led celebration of migratory #birds, do I post a video of Eastern Lowland Gorillas? Read on, Gentle Reader, and all will become clear...

After a rainstorm in an African #rainforest, Mwinja, a damp mother gorilla rests with her infant Mwira, then lets her older son Marhale cuddle and kidnap the baby to play in the thicket, watched over by another juvenile high in the tree above.
This little vignette of #gorilla #familylife was filmed in Kahuzi Biega National Park​ in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo #DRC in 2015, just after it was discovered that the swifts that nest in the Imperial Palace in Beijing migrate over this part of the #CongoBasin on their way to and from southwest Africa. I read about this research online while sitting in the park HQ, and seeing the map of the flyway - https://birdingbeijing.com/2015/05/24/out-of-africa-the-beijing-swifts-incredible-journey-charted-at-last/ - realised that these insectivorous birds depend on a healthy forest providing lots of flying insects for them to refuel for the long journey back to #Beijing.
The return of the #swifts to the #ImperialPalace in mid-April is celebrated in #China as a sign of Spring, but until ornithologists fitted some of the birds with tiny geolocators, no-one realised the ecological links to #apes and #elephants in #Africa. #Primates and elephants are important seed-dispersal agents in African forests - #GardenersoftheForest - sowing the seeds of the trees of tomorrow by eating fruit and passing the seeds in their dung, miles from the parent plant.
A healthy forest is rich in #biodiversity - notice all the insects flying around the gorillas, waiting to lay their eggs on the gorilla droppings. Perhaps a swift swooping over the forest is feeding up for its migration northwards on flies that fed on gorilla poo! Another good reason to celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD)​ - and protect the #ecosystems along the whole flyway, as facilitated by the UN Convention on Migratory Species​.
This is #BrightenYourDay video No.52 to connect people to #nature, and share the connections in nature, while cooped up in #Covid19 #lockdown.