One Planet News: Science study into migratory songbirds gives fascinating insight

New information about night-time songbird migrations

Wild Insights Supplement

By Annette J Beveridge

You may not see them but millions of migrating songbirds navigate the night sky following routes carved out in evolutionary time scales but now new research has revealed something startling.

Why birds migrate

Migration enables birds to take advantage of seasonal food sources. Some migrations are short but others embark upon considerable distances over deserts, oceans and continents but little is known about migration as many songbirds migrate at night.

On a global level, about 2,000 bird species migrate regularly.

In the UK, we often think about Swifts or Swallows making a dangerous trek to and from our shores, but even a blackbird in the garden in January could be a winter visitor.

Photo by Linda Buscop on Unsplash

How do birds know when to migrate?

According to the RSPB, it is the bird’s body itself that informs it when to migrate. Glands in the body release hormones and these occur at the same time each year. But there are environmental cues too.

For some, the migration is learned by the parent’s behaviour - consider swans or geese.

Read more: The eerie whistle of bushmaster snakes

New research

Research led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign utilised evidence from more than 18,000 hours of recorded flight calls with some really interesting findings.