Date: September 7, 2016
Source: Central Ornithology
Publication Office
It turns out being the early bird
really does have its advantages. A new study in The Auk: Ornithological
Advances shows that migrating birds fly faster and put more effort into
staying on course in spring than in fall, racing to arrive to their breeding
grounds as soon as possible to get an edge in raising the next generation.
Migrating birds travel faster in
spring than in fall because arriving late to their breeding grounds can affect
their reproductive success. Past studies have shown that migrants take shorter
breaks in spring, but it's harder to tell whether they also move faster in the
air. When they used high-tech weather surveillance radars operated by NOAA and
the Department of Defense on migrating birds, Kyle Horton of the University of
Oklahoma and his colleagues found that birds did indeed fly faster in spring
and compensated more for crosswinds that could blow them off course.
"Many migration studies look
at a few individuals, maybe on the scale of hundreds, but with radar, we're now
documenting the behaviors of millions of individuals on a given night. That's a
lot of data, and when you do see flight behavior results that are regionally or
seasonally different, it's quite compelling," says Horton. He hopes birds'
ability to adjust their migratory behavior for different conditions will buffer
them against the effects climate change, which may cause large-scale shifts in
wind intensity.
No comments:
Post a Comment