The interplay of wind and uplift facilitates over-water flight in facultative soaring birds.

ABSTRACT: Flying over the open sea is energetically costly for terrestrial birds. Despite this, over-water journeys of many birds, sometimes hundreds of kilometres long, are uncovered by bio-logging technology. To understand how these birds afford their flights over the open sea, we investigated the role of atmospheric conditions, specifically wind and uplift, in subsidizing over-water flight at a global scale. We first established that ΔT, the temperature difference between sea surface and air, is a meaningful proxy for uplift over water. Using this proxy, we showed that the spatio-temporal patterns of sea-crossing in terrestrial migratory birds are associated with favourable uplift conditions. We then analysed route selection over the open sea for five facultative soaring species, represent

SUBMITTER: Nourani E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8424339 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature