Songbirds initiate migratory flights synchronously relative to civil dusk.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Each spring and fall billions of songbirds depart on nocturnal migrations across the globe. Theory suggests that songbirds should depart on migration shortly after sunset to maximize their potential for nightly flight duration or to time departure with the emergence of celestial cues needed for orientation and navigation. Although captive studies have found that songbirds depart during a narrow window of time after sunset, observational studies have found that wild birds depart later and more asynchronously relative to sunset than predicted.

Methods

We used coded radio tags and automated radio-telemetry to estimate the time that nearly 400 individuals from nine songbird species departed their breeding or wintering grounds across North America. We also assessed whe

SUBMITTER: Cooper NW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10150543 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature