As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Monday 19 November 2018

Songbirds set long-distance migration record



Date: November 15, 2018
Source: Lund University:

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have studied flight routes to determine how far willow warblers migrate in the autumn. The results show that the willow warbler holds a long-distance migration record in the ten-gram weight category -- with the small birds flying around 13,000 kilometres or longer to reach their destination.

The recently completed study investigated willow warblers that breed during the summer in north-east Russia. Biologists at Lund University together with Russian researchers from Magadan, close to the Kamtjatka Peninsula, managed to get a good overview of the route and distance travelled by the small birds during their autumn migration.

The measurements were taken by small data loggers attached to the backs of the birds. The next year, the birds were recaptured and the researchers downloaded and processed the data.

From their breeding habitats in eastern Siberia, the willow warblers fly to staging areas located in south-west Asia and the eastern Mediterranean. From there, they continue to their winter destinations, located in Kenya and Tanzania -- a distance of around 13,000 kilometres.

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