Songbird migration

[Bookworm]

ScienceDaily (Feb. 12, 2009) — A York University researcher has tracked the migration of songbirds by outfitting them with tiny geolocator backpacks – a world first – revealing that scientists have underestimated their flight performance dramatically.

"Never before has anyone been able to track songbirds for their entire migratory trip," said study author Bridget Stutchbury, a professor of biology in York's Faculty of Science & Engineering. "We're excited to achieve this scientific first." Songbirds, the most common type of bird in our skies, are too small for conventional satellite tracking.

Stutchbury and her team mounted miniaturized geolocators on 14 wood thrushes and 20 purple martins, breeding in Pennsylvania during 2007, tracking the birds' fall takeoff, migration to South America, and journey back to North America. In the summer of 2008, they retrieved the geolocators from five wood thrushes and two purple martins and reconstructed individual migration routes and wintering locations.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/...90212141152.htm




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[Chris Vogel]

It mesmerizes me that they take such short a time.

(I totally thought this thread would be about something else.)

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[Red Squirrel]

Our tax dollars at work. Tracking birds in the sky. But they don't know where bin laden is LOL.

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[Stasi]

But they don't know where bin laden is LOL.

It's like trying to track a turd in a sewer.

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