The night sky teems with migrating songbirds, aloft in their millions following routes etched in evolutionary time.
The night sky teems with migrating songbirds, aloft in their millions following routes etched in evolutionary time. But those flight paths may not be entirely innate, according to new research led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Evidence from over 18,300 hours of recorded flight calls suggests songbirds may “talk” to other species as they migrate, forming social connections and — just maybe — exchanging information about the journey.
“We can’t be sure what they’re saying, but birds might broadcast calls during flight to signal their species, age, and sex. And we can certainly speculate that these flight calls could relate to navigation or finding suitable stopover habitat,” said lead study author Benjamin Van Doren, assistant professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at Illinois. Van Doren began this research at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Work from last year by the study’s co-authors at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Appalachian Laboratory suggested birds “buddy up” with other species at stopover sites during migration, but there was no evidence until now that different songbird species pair up or communicate vocally on the wing. Although Van Doren believes innate patterning and memory are still important drivers of migration behaviors, he says it’s time to rethink songbird migration through a social lens.
Read more at University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
Image: New research shows songbird migration may be driven by more than innate patterns and memory. Recorded flight calls reveal probable social associations between species making the nighttime trek. Here, an American Redstart streaks across the sky. (Credit: Andrew Dreelin)
