Predicting 50,000 years of bird migrations

By Jim Shelton
february 18, 2020

Neither wind, nor rain — nor massive sheets of ice — have kept Earth’s birds from their appointed rounds of migrating to better climes, according to a new study.

That’s the conclusion of a new study from the Max Planck-Yale Center for Biodiversity Movement and Global Change (MPYC), which simulated global bird migrations during scenarios of past climate conditions. The researchers said that, in the Americas in particular, migrating birds successfully maneuvered vastly changing landscapes in the past 50,000 years.

“Our simulations predict that bird migration worldwide has remained relatively constant over this period, suggesting an origin for this phenomenon that is older than the glacial cycles of recent Earth history,” said first author Marius Somveille, a former MPYC researcher who is starting a postdoctoral position at Colorado State University.

Yet there has been regional variation in migrating birds’ response to climate change, the researchers said. In the Americas, for example, there has been a larger increase in the distances that birds have migrated over the past 50,000 years, compared with other parts of the world.

“In the last ice age, up to about 18,000 years ago, North America had an ice sheet that covered a large part of the continent and prevented bird species from living there,” said Yale’s Walter Jetz, senior author of the study, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and co-director of MPYC.

“This ice sheet retreated and birds colonized the land — and those birds were likely highly migratory, as seasonality in this area was pronounced. Our simulations suggest that toward the present this part of the world has seen both migratory distances and migration activity significantly increase,” he said.

The study appears in the journal Nature Communications.

Continued

New insights into genetic basis of bird migration

AUGUST 28, 2019

by Gail Mccormick, Pennsylvania State University

A gene newly associated with the migratory patterns of golden-winged and blue-winged warblers could lend insight into the longstanding question of how birds migrate across such long distances.

A new study led by researchers at Penn State and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is the first to combine whole genome sequencing and migration tracking technology to pinpoint a single geneassociated with the complex suite of traits that determine migratory behavior. These findings may have important conservation implications for the declining populations of golden-winged warblers. The paper appears online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and describes the gene, which is associated with a neurological disorder in humans.

"The great migrations of the world have been inspiring people for hundreds of years," said David Toews, assistant professor of biology at Penn State and leader of the research team. "The migration of birds is particularly fascinating because small species primarily navigate alone, at night, and at high altitudes, so people do not always see it happening. They are in your backyard, and then they are gone."

Migration programming in birds is incredibly complex, encompassing a suite of neurological, physiological, and behavioral traits. Researchers have known for a few decades that there is a genetic component to migration. Recent studies in birds have identified large regions of the genome, encompassing hundreds of genes, associated with migration, but it has been more difficult to pinpoint the specific roles of any single gene.

Read more

How to watch spring migration unfold across Europe

 10/04/2019

EuroBirdPortal LIVE – a free, web-based tool that provides a fascinating insight into the movements across Europe – has been launched this week. The portal allows the user to watch the northward migration of some 105 species, including Common Cuckoo and Swallow, via a live viewing programme. Animated maps are updated daily based on roughly 120,000 observations from birders across the region. 

Birders submitting their observations to BirdTrack will be contributing to this exciting project and, over the course of a year, around 45 million new observations are added, providing an unprecedented near real-time view of the movements of migrants as they arrive in Europe from further south and move north with the progression of spring. Gabriel Gargallo, EuroBirdPortal (EBP) project coordinator, said: "With the huge improvements in terms of coverage, data quality and connectivity accomplished during the last three years thanks to the EU LIFE grant, the EBP project has made a big step forward.

"Now we have better data, vital to properly understand the seasonal patterns of bird distribution in Europe and their changes over time, and it is readily available, providing unique opportunities to develop novel applications of conservation and management concern (for example, predicting wildfowl movements due to cold spells or improving the surveillance of avian-borne diseases).

"But all this would not be possible without the more than 120,000 volunteer birdwatchers regularly sharing their observations with the different online portals. The LIVE version of the EBP viewer recognises their vital role in the project and showcases how such individual and local contributions can be nicely summed up to help unravel the large-scale seasonal distributional patterns of our birds."

Scott Mayson, BirdTrack Organiser at BTO, added: "It is great to see the observations of birdwatchers contributing to this amazing project. I have always wanted to be able to follow a bird such as a Swallow as it migrates and now I can. This is citizen science at its very best."

You can follow developments at eurobirdportal.org.

Source

Shorebird haven threatened by tourist resort

04/03/2019

Peleliu Lkes, a coastal wetland on the Pacific island of Palau, is threatened by the development of a nearby tourist resort. The site is an intertidal zone of pristine sand flats and islets and is a sanctuary for migrating shorebirds, including Far Eastern Curlew, serving as a stopover for birds travelling from Arctic and subarctic breeding grounds to coastal sites in Australia and New Zealand. 

However, an islet adjacent to the Lkes has been leased to a foreign developer for $300,000 with the intention of developing it into a tourist resort. Needless to say, any resort-based operations on the islet will encroach into the reef and likely severely degrade the important habitat. Furthermore, levels of disturbance will be raised.

Several Endangered species, including Micronesian Megapode, Far Eastern Curlew and Great Knot rely on Peleliu Lkes. Favourable tidal conditions present ample feeding opportunities for resident and migratory species alike. Unsurprisingly, BirdLife has added the site to their inventory of global Important Bird & Biodiversity Areas (IBAs).

BirdLife's partner on the island – Palau Conservation Society (PCS) – has been working to preserve the area and faces a fresh challenge in light of the recent leasing. Stressing the vital role Peleliu Lkes plays for both the local community and birds, PCS are lobbying to convince islanders and politicians that the area needs immediate protection. Hopefully, both local and global pressure will lead to the site being included on the national network of protected areas.

Source

BirdLife launches Flight for Survival

27/02/2019

Each year a sickening 25 million migrant birds are illegally slaughtered as they pass between Africa and Europe, sparking BirdLife International to launch a new campaign called Flight for Survival this week. The campaign will set out to raise awareness off the issue globally, though there will be a key focus on seven species in particular: Blackcap, Common Quail, Eastern Imperial Eagle, Egyptian Vulture, European Turtle Dove, European Honey Buzzard and White Stork.

The millions of killed birds are often either poisoned, shot or trapped (by glue or mist nets). Two studies by BirdLife International – covering the Mediterranean and Central, Eastern and Northern Europe respectively – have unearthed these shocking figures and causes of death. A myriad of species are killed, with feeble reasons such as sport, food or 'pest control'. More often than not, such action is illegal.

These great threats come on top of a changing climate and world in which habitat is continually being destroyed. Egyptian Vulture – an Endangered species – has declined by 50 per cent during the last 50 years and nowadays just one in seven juveniles reach adulthood. Another striking example of dramatic decline is that of European Turtle Dove. Once common and widespread in Europe, and indeed the UK, this species was listed as Vulnerable for the first time in 2016. It is one of the most heavily persecuted species in the Mediterranean.

Both of these birds will be part of an awareness raising campaign provided by Flight for Survival, along with the five aforementioned species. The project will follow the migration journeys of these species as they travel from Africa to their breeding grounds in Europe, revealing the various threats they face as they pass through some of the worst blackspots.

Read on

Birds migrating from Siberia to Pakistan decline 70% this winter: report

Source: Xinhua| 2019-02-11 21:45:39|Editor: xuxin

ISLAMABAD, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- The number of migratory birds from Siberia to Pakistan has declined 70 percent this winter, mainly due to climatic change and human activities, local reports said on Monday.

The harsh winter in Russia forces birds to leave their home in search of warmer places, and Pakistan is one of such destinations where these birds including some rare species stop by.

The migratory birds arrive in Pakistan at the end of August every year via Afghanistan, and leave in February. They all move back to their native lands by March.

Pakistan has 19 sites where birds land, 10 of which are located in south Sindh province. The migratory birds temporarily stop in Thatta, Rann of Kutch and Thar coastal areas of Sindh, from where they gradually spread to other lakes, Express Tribune reported.

Quoting World Wildlife Fund Technical advisor Moazzam Khan, the paper said that less rainfall, dried up water passages and the changing of locations are the major reasons for the decline on the guest birds.

Continued

In Malta, legal loopholes give poachers cover to hunt migratory birds

by Jason J. Gregg on 11 January 2019

Malta is a stopping-off point for some 170 species of birds migrating between Europe and Africa. But poachers kill or capture up to 200,000 wild birds every year — a problem widespread across the Mediterranean.

In particular, illegal trapping of birds such as finches continues to persist in Malta, despite the European Court of Justice ruling against Malta for allowing the trapping of protected species.

To legalize finch trapping within the framework of European law, Malta used a legal maneuver called a derogation by claiming that finch trapping was a traditional practice in the country.

Such legal derogations are being used as a smokescreen to illegally trap finches and other protected species not just in Malta but in other countries as well.

Within a day of arriving on the Mediterranean island of Malta on their southbound migration last August, three of 18 white storks were shot and killed by poachers.

Less than two weeks later, just one of the birds was left alive. By Aug. 29, 19 days since the flock arrived, all of the birds had disappeared.

Malta is a stopping-off point for some 170 species of birds from at least 48 different countries migrating between Europe and Africa. The vast majority of these birds, including white storks (Ciconia ciconia) and black storks (Ciconia nigra), are strictly protected under the European Union’s Birds Directive of 1972. But in Malta, poachers kill or capture up to 200,000 wild birds every year: shooting them for food, taxidermy or simply target practice, or trapping them to keep as pets or live hunting decoys.

Continued  

Study of bird migration tricky due to hybridization

August 23, 2018, Estonian Research Council

Hybridization among bird species is a widespread phenomenon, which is best illustrated in Estonia by the lesser spotted eagle and the greater spotted eagle. However, due to the fact that the migration strategies of both bird species are completely different, studying their hybrid offspring helps ornithologists discover a lot about their migration secrets.

The lesser spotted eagle is an early leaving far traveler. The greater spotted eagle is a late leaving short- and middle-distance traveler. According to Ülo Väli, senior researcher at the chair of biological diversity and nature tourism of the Estonian University of Life Sciences, hybridization causes confusion among ornithologists, but it is worrying, because the rare greater spotted eagle may be endangered. At the same time, studying hybrids can reveal answers to ecological questions. "With their hybridization, birds offer scientists an excellent inter-breeding experiment from nature, which helps explain factors affecting the migration of birds."

Thus, for instance, it has been believed for a long time that the timing, direction and length of migration of passerines with a shorter lifespan is mostly determined by genetic factors, and for bigger birds with a longer life-span, it is more important to learn from their parents and others of the same species. It has previously only been possible to conduct experiments with small passerines in order to check these assumptions. The research of migration of big birds with a longer lifespan has been hampered by inadequate technical capacities.

Read more at:

First hand-reared black-tailed godwit returns to the UK

The male, named ‘Delph’, is one 26 released into the wild last summer as part of efforts to boost the UK’s threatened breeding population.

A black-tailed godwit released into the wild in the Fens after being hand-reared has returned home from its winter migration, wildlife experts have said.

The bird is one of 26 raised at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) Welney Wetland Centre, Cambridgeshire, and released into the wild last summer, from where they migrated as far as Portugal for the winter.

Their release was part of the Project Godwit efforts by the charities to increase the small, vulnerable breeding population of black-tailed godwits in the UK.

The wading birds were hatched in captivity and hand-reared by wildlife experts from the RSPB and WWT away from dangers such as predators,  in a process known as “headstarting” which aims to improve survival chances and boost numbers.

The male is the first of the group to return to the Fens and has been named Delph after the river bank where he was sighted.

Project Godwit expert at WWT Louise Clewley,  who made the discovery, said: “It was right in front of WWT Welney’s main observatory for everyone to see.

Read more at 

Bulgarians rush to save a phalanx of distressed, frozen storks

Villagers come to the rescue after icy wings ground hundreds of migrating birds

Agence France-Presse

Wed 21 Mar 2018 18.33 GMTLast modified on Wed 21 Mar 2018 18.40 GMT

What would you do if you encountered scores of distressed storks covered in ice lying in a snow-covered field? In Bulgaria, people have been taking them home.

A cold snap in the north-east of the country has stranded hundreds of the migrating birds this week, covering their wings in ice and grounding them.

“I found five frozen storks near the village road the day before yesterday,” Safet Halil, 53, from the village of Zaritsa, near the town of Dulovo said on Wednesday. “I took them home, lit a stove to warm them and fed them fish.”

Halil, a road maintenance worker, sparked a wave of support on social media on Monday and others in the region followed his example, with more than 40 birds sheltered inside people’s homes, garages or barns.

Experts said the frozen wings had forced the birds to spend the night on the ground instead of perched on trees as usual.

“It’s the first time that we have seen so many storks in distress in Bulgaria,” said Hristina Klisurova, from the Green Balkans wildlife rehabilitation centre in Stara Zagora.

Continued  

Fly away home? Ice age may have clipped bird migration

by Scott Schrage | University Communication

A study led by Nebraska's Robert Zink proposes that many bird species, such as the Canada warbler, may have completely stopped migrating during the last ice age.

The onset of the last ice age may have forced some bird species to abandon their northerly migrations for thousands of years, says new research led by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln ornithologist.

Published Sept. 20 in the journal Science Advances, the study challenges a long-held presumption that birds merely shortened their migratory flights when glaciers advanced south to cover much of North America and northern Europe about 21,000 years ago.

The study concluded that the emergence of glaciers in those regions instead acted as an “adaptive switch” that turned off migratory behavior, transforming the tropics from a cold-weather resort into a long-term residence for certain bird species.

Of the 29 long-distance migrant species examined in the study, 20 likely saw their northern breeding grounds become uninhabitable, according to models developed by the researchers. When the climate again warmed and glaciers retreated back to the Arctic, those species presumably resumed their seasonal migrations.

Lead author Robert Zink said the conclusions could alter how scientists reconstruct the history of bird migration.

“It fundamentally changes the way we study the evolution of migration and think about the migratory behavior of birds,” said Zink, professor of natural resources and biological sciences at Nebraska.

Read more  

Israel’s 500 million birds: The world’s eighth wonder

German journalist and photographer Thomas Krumenacker was amazed by the bird migrations he witnessed in Israel. He couldn’t help but write the book on the subject.

 
By Zafrir Rinat Jan 13, 2017
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.764710

Migratory birds love Israel, now Israel is out to lure bird-watchers
Israel has best bird conservation record in the region
In Pictures Flights of fancy: Bird migration in Israel's Hula Valley

A working visit to Israel by German journalist and photographer Thomas Krumenacker 11 years ago changed his life. After witnessing the seasonal migration of birds here, he made his hobby something much more serious. The result: his book “Birds in the Holy Land,” which has just come out in German and English.

The work was published with the help of the Hoopoe Bird Foundation, founded by Rachel and Moshe Yanai and administered by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. Krumenacker lives in Berlin but visits Israel often. He follows the birds from the heights of Mount Hermon to the Gulf of Eilat.

The book’s photos and accompanying text show why birds’ migration along the length of the country has been termed “the eighth wonder of the world.” In a short period, more than 500 bird species pass overhead, and almost every year a new species not seen before in Israel is observed.

read more:

Study demonstrates seasonality of bird migration in response to environmental cues

Date: September 6, 2016

Source: University of Oklahoma

A University of Oklahoma study demonstrates for the first time that remote sensing data from weather surveillance radar and on-the-ground data from the eBird citizen science database both yield robust indices of migration timing, also known as migration phenology. These indices can now be used to address the critical gap in our knowledge regarding the cues that migrants use for fine tuning their migration timing in response to climate.

"These scientists combined citizen science observations with data from radar, satellites and weather predictions to understand the cues birds use in their migrations across continents," said Liz Blood, program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research through NSF's MacroSystems Biology Program. "The results show that birds migrate in time with warming temperatures in spring and with seasonal changes in the surface of the land, like the leafing-out of trees."

Seasonality of bird migration is shifting in response to climate change and, as a result, birds are arriving at their northern breeding grounds earlier in the spring. The OU study conducted in the eastern United States uses two novel data sources, weather surveillance radar and eBird citizen science data, to build indices of bird migration timing. These indices are innovative and reflect timing of migration of millions of birds of many species over large regions, expanding on more traditional measures of migration timing based on a few individuals of a particular species.

Read more

Scientists map migration paths of Arctic breeding birds

Results help identify rapidly disappearing staging and wintering grounds

Date: August 22, 2016

Source: Wildlife Conservation Society

Conservation of intertidal habitat -- 65 percent of which has been lost over the last 50 years -- is critical to the survival of countless birds during migration on the East Asian Australasian Flyway.

In an effort to understand the threats and inform conservation of these areas, scientists from The Institute of Biological Problems of the North (Russian Academy of Sciences) and WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) have collaborated to identify vital stopover areas for the dunlin, a shorebird known to migrate up to 7500 km (4700 miles) to reach its destination.

Arctic shorebirds breeding in Chukotka and Alaska depend upon key coastal intertidal sites along their migratory route to find food to supply energy on their flights. Such intertidal habitats are rapidly being lost to human development, resulting in marked declines of all species that have been studied on this flyway. Some, like the spoon-billed sandpiper, are now at critical risk of extinction, while 23 other species are now threatened, endangered, or vulnerable to extinction. Many others are in rapid decline, losing up to 10 percent of their numbers each year. A key driver of these losses is thought to be associated with development projects along the Yellow Sea coastline that convert intertidal mudflats to dry ground.

To better understand the nuanced threats to shorebird species that breed in Chukotka and nearby Alaska, Russian and American scientists have collaborated on a number of studies, including an assessment of nesting densities and factors influencing nest survival on breeding grounds in Russia. Most recently they have charted the migratory movements, timing, and wintering ground locations of a sub-species of dunlin, a relatively common shorebird that breeds in Chukotka.

Continued  

Bird migration changing due to climate change, development at Indian coasts

Last Updated: Saturday, July 2, 2016 - 21:51

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: According to experts, developmental activities in coastal wetlands of India and climate change are the two main factors behind change in arrival patterns of migratory birds.

The important coastal wetlands along the east coast of India are Gulf of Mannar, Point Calimere, Pulicat, and Chilika.

On the east coast, due to the degradation of wetlands habitats, populations of various waterbird species are dwindling in their traditional wintering sites, said S. Balachandran, deputy director, Bombay Natural History Society.

"Climate change is definitely affecting the migratory pattern and also development in the coastal areas. Winter is not happening in many places. For example, in Chilika in Odisha, 20 years ago it used to be very cold (in winters). Birds which are coming from Arctic region need that... they need that temperature so that they can slowly adapt to the summer before they go back," Balachandran told IANS here.

"Habitat changes are also due to climate change, such as the change in rainfall pattern," he said.

About the decline in numbers of greater flamingos and water birds such as plovers and spoonbill sandpipers, Balachandran said arrival patterns have changed.

"Some birds are arrival earlier and some are coming later," he said.

All the coastal wetlands of India are frequented by Arctic breeding shorebirds (a group of migratory birds) such as curlew sandpiper and little stint.

These wetlands also provide winter refuge for migratory waterfowl from different parts of the world such as North, Central and West Asia, Europe and Mediterranean regions.

Highlighting the importance of the stopover sites, which are used by birds to build energy reserves before a long migratory sojourn, Balachandran said some sites are traditionally used by the birds to build body mass to undertake the journey. Some shorebirds, weighing as low as 15 grams gain mass to weigh 25 grams, he said. In one year they may fly 18,000 km.

Continued ...