Date: August 6, 2018
Source: Lund University
A new study from Lund University
in Sweden shows that small birds migrating from Scandinavia to Africa in the
autumn occasionally fly as high as 4,000 metres above sea level -- probably
adjusting their flight to take advantage of favourable winds and different wind
layers.
This is the first time that
researchers have tracked how high small birds fly all the way from Sweden to
Africa. Previous studies have successfully logged the flight height of larger
migratory birds.
"We only followed two
individuals and two species. But the fact that both of them flew so high does
surprise me. It's fascinating and it raises new questions about the physiology
of birds. How do they cope with the air pressure, thin air and low temperatures
at these heights?," says Sissel Sjöberg, biologist at Lund University and
the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen.
The aim of the study was to
investigate whether the measuring method itself works on small birds, that is,
to measure acceleration, barometric pressure (air pressure) and temperature
throughout the flight using a small data logger attached to the bird.
No comments:
Post a Comment