Wind drift, compensation, and the use of landmarks by nocturnal bird migrants

Contrasting seasonal responses to wind in migrating songbirds on a globally important flyway

During spring migration, nocturnal migrants attempt to minimize their travel time to reach their breeding grounds early. However, how they behave and respond to unfavourable conditions during their springtime travels is much less understood. In this study, we reveal the effects of atmospheric factors on nocturnal bird migration under adverse conditions during spring and autumn, based on one of the most detailed bird migration studies globally, using radar data from 13 deployments over a period of seven years (2014-2020) in the Levant region. Using ERA5 reanalysis data, we found that migratory birds maintain similar ground speeds in both autumn and spring migrations, but during spring, when encountering unfavourable winds, they put more effort into maintaining their travel speed by increasing self-powered airspeed by 18%. Moreover, we report for the first time that spring migrants showed less selectivity to wind conditions and migrated even under unfavourable headwind and crosswind conditions. Interestingly, we discovered that temperature was the most important weather parameter, such that warm weather substantially increased migration intensities in both seasons. Our results enhance our understanding of bird migration over the Levant region, one of the world's largest and most important migration flyways, and the factors controlling it. This information is essential for predicting bird migration, which-especially under the ongoing anthropogenic changes-is of high importance.

Do Seabirds Control Wind Drift during Their Migration across the Strait of Gibraltar? A Study Using Remote Tracking by Radar

This study presents data on the directional flying behaviour of the five most abundant seabird species migrating across the Strait of Gibraltar in relation to the wind, as observed from the north coast, based on radar tracking, and identified to species level by visual observations. A total of 318 seabird trajectories were analysed, illustrating the expected east–west or west–east movements in spring and autumn. We hypothesised that the seabirds that cross the Strait channel during their migrations would behave differently with respect to compensation for wind direction, depending on their flight styles, the migratory period, and the prevailing winds. In this regard, our results showed that flapping birds (Razorbill, Puffin, Northern Gannet, and Balearic shearwater) compensated for wind drift independently of the season and the predominant wind direction. This agrees with the theory that suggests that under moderate winds and whenever visual contact with the coastline is present (as in the case of our study), migrants should compensate for wind drift to avoid being drifted towards the coast, off their main direction of flight. However, Cory’s shearwater, an active gliding seabird with long, slender wings, showed an adaptive directional response to wind, allowing it to be drifted in spring when westerly tailwinds were prevalent, but compensated for wind in autumn, when both easterly and westerly winds were similarly frequent. This adaptive flight behaviour allows it to take advantage of the prevailing tailwinds in spring, gaining ground speed and saving energy during its passage through the Strait, while in autumn, more frequent headwind conditions and a more directional migration to the south may favour compensating for wind drift. Our results support the usefulness of bird radar as a remote tool for describing the pattern of animal movements in the marine environment, as well as their behavioural response to atmospheric conditions. These studies are particularly relevant in the current framework of climate change.

Compensation for wind drift prevails for a shorebird on a long-distance, transoceanic flight

BACKGROUND

Conditions encountered en route can dramatically impact the energy that migratory species spend on movement. Migratory birds often manage energetic costs by adjusting their behavior in relation to wind conditions as they fly. Wind-influenced behaviors can offer insight into the relative importance of risk and resistance during migration, but to date, they have only been studied in a limited subset of avian species and flight types. We add to this understanding by examining in-flight behaviors over a days-long, barrier-crossing flight in a migratory shorebird.

METHODS

Using satellite tracking devices, we followed 25 Hudsonian godwits (Limosa haemastica) from 2019-2021 as they migrated northward across a largely transoceanic landscape extending > 7000 km from Chiloé Island, Chile to the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. We identified in-flight behaviors during this crossing by comparing directions of critical movement vectors and used mixed models to test whether the resulting patterns supported three classical predictions about wind and migration.

RESULTS

Contrary to our predictions, compensation did not increase linearly with distance traveled, was not constrained during flight over open ocean, and did not influence where an individual ultimately crossed over the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico at the end of this flight. Instead, we found a strong preference for full compensation throughout godwit flight paths.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results indicate that compensation is crucial to godwits, emphasizing the role of risk in shaping migratory behavior and raising questions about the consequences of changing wind regimes for other barrier-crossing aerial migrants.

Compensation for wind drift in the nocturnally migrating Song Thrushes in relation to altitude and wind

Compensation for wind drift in relation to the side-wind velocity and altitude was investigated in Song Thrushes during autumn migration. The birds were recorded at night flying above the prominent leading line of a marine spit which coincided with the general direction of their migration. Among the large size passerine species, Song Thrushes were identified by a combination of five flight characteristics typical only of this species during particular periods of autumn. The thrushes showed different reactions to the crosswinds: complete and partial compensation for the displacement and drift. Under normal visibility, the completeness of compensation depended both on the velocity of the side-wind and altitude. The degree of compensation achieved was reduced with an increase of altitude, regardless of the wind. Under the same wind conditions, the angle of drift (the angle between the track direction and the leading line) increased with altitude, but the number of birds that compensated for drift decreased. On average, at heights below 300 m agl, the thrushes were capable of compensating completely for moderate winds; between 300 and 600 m agl compensation was partial; but above 600 m the birds drifted completely. Birds of the same species flying above the same terrain may demonstrate different reactions to the same crosswind depending on altitude. Meanwhile, flight tracks gradually deviated from the leading line with an increase in altitude, the headings of the birds got closer to the general migratory direction. It is more likely that the birds control displacement using the visual flow regulation principle by the angular velocity of the landmarks below them running aside in relation to their flight direction, which is inversely proportional to the altitude. Low flying thrushes promptly reacted to the shifting of the leading line of the spit with an average angular velocity of more than 0.8°/s perpendicular to the direction of flight and compensated completely for drift. Shifting of the leading line with an angular velocity of less than 0.4°/s, the high flying birds did not seem to notice or did not try to compensate for displacement deliberately.

Radar quantifies migrant concentration and Dawn reorientation at a Great Lakes shoreline

BACKGROUND

Millions of flying migrants encounter the Great Lakes and other large water bodies on long-distance flights each spring and fall, but quantitative data regarding how they traverse these obstacles are limited. Shorelines are known areas of migrant concentration due to the ecological barrier effect, but details on the magnitude of this concentration and the flight behaviors causing it are largely unknown and difficult to quantify. Mobile avian radar can provide a unique view of how birds and bats move across landscapes by tracking thousands of individual migrants moving through a sample volume that extends multiple kilometers in radius.

RESULTS

During the spring of 2014 we used two avian radar units to compare migration patterns at shoreline (1.5 km from the shore) and inland (20 km from the shore) sites along the eastern shoreline of Lake Michigan in the north-central US. We found shoreline activity to be 27% greater than inland activity over all time periods, and 132% greater during the hour surrounding dawn. An analysis of flight directions found that migrants flew to the north and northwest during dusk and night, with many heading out over the lake, but shifted direction towards the east at dawn, as those flying over water reoriented towards land. This shift in direction, which was most intense at the shoreline, may contribute to the higher concentrations of migrants observed at shorelines in this study and others.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings help confirm and quantify the phenomenon of nocturnal migrant reorientation at dawn, and also stress the functional importance of coastal regions for aerial migrants. The high use of coasts by migrants highlights the importance of conserving shoreline stopover habitat, which often competes with anthropogenic uses. We suggest using a high degree of caution when assessing potential impacts from development in these sensitive environments, and encourage protection of these high-use areas.

Nocturnally migrating songbirds drift when they can and compensate when they must

The shortest possible migratory route for birds is not always the best route to travel. Substantial research effort has established that birds in captivity are capable of orienting toward the direction of an intended goal, but efforts to examine how free-living birds use navigational information under conditions that potentially make direct flight toward that goal inefficient have been limited in spatiotemporal scales and in the number of individuals observed because of logistical and technological limitations. Using novel and recently developed techniques for analysis of Doppler polarimetric weather surveillance radar data, we examined two impediments for nocturnally migrating songbirds in eastern North America following shortest-distance routes: crosswinds and oceans. We found that migrants in flight often drifted sideways on crosswinds, but most strongly compensated for drift when near the Atlantic coast. Coastal migrants’ tendency to compensate for wind drift also increased through the night, while no strong temporal differences were observed at inland sites. Such behaviors suggest that birds migrate in an adaptive way to conserve energy by assessing while airborne the degree to which they must compensate for wind drift.

Juvenile Osprey Navigation during Trans-Oceanic Migration

To compensate for drift, an animal migrating through air or sea must be able to navigate. Although some species of bird, fish, insect, mammal, and reptile are capable of drift compensation, our understanding of the spatial reference frame, and associated coordinate space, in which these navigational behaviors occur remains limited. Using high resolution satellite-monitored GPS track data, we show that juvenile ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) are capable of non-stop constant course movements over open ocean spanning distances in excess of 1500 km despite the perturbing effects of winds and the lack of obvious landmarks. These results are best explained by extreme navigational precision in an exogenous spatio-temporal reference frame, such as positional orientation relative to Earth's magnetic field and pacing relative to an exogenous mechanism of keeping time. Given the age (<1 year-old) of these birds and knowledge of their hatching site locations, we were able to transform Enhanced Magnetic Model coordinate locations such that the origin of the magnetic coordinate space corresponded with each bird's nest. Our analyses show that trans-oceanic juvenile osprey movements are consistent with bicoordinate positional orientation in transformed magnetic coordinate or geographic space. Through integration of movement and meteorological data, we propose a new theoretical framework, chord and clock navigation, capable of explaining the precise spatial orientation and temporal pacing performed by juvenile ospreys during their long-distance migrations over open ocean.

Modeling the distribution of migratory bird stopovers to inform landscape-scale siting of wind development

Conservation of migratory birds requires understanding the distribution of and potential threats to their migratory habitats. However, although migratory birds are protected under international treaties, few maps have been available to represent migration at a landscape scale useful to target conservation efforts or inform the siting of wind energy developments that may affect migratory birds. To fill this gap, we developed models that predict where four groups of birds concentrate or stopover during their migration through the state of Wyoming, USA: raptors, wetland, riparian and sparse grassland birds. The models were based on existing literature and expert knowledge concerning bird migration behavior and ecology and validated using expert ratings and known occurrences. There was significant agreement between migratory occurrence data and migration models for all groups except raptors, and all models ranked well with experts. We measured the overlap between the migration concentration models and a predictive model of wind energy development to assess the potential exposure of migratory birds to wind development and illustrate the utility of migratory concentration models for landscape-scale planning. Wind development potential is high across 15% of Wyoming, and 73% of this high potential area intersects important migration concentration areas. From 5.2% to 18.8% of each group's important migration areas was represented within this high wind potential area, with the highest exposures for sparse grassland birds and the lowest for riparian birds. Our approach could be replicated elsewhere to fill critical data gaps and better inform conservation priorities and landscape-scale planning for migratory birds.

Wind selectivity and partial compensation for wind drift among nocturnally migrating passerines

A migrating bird's response to wind can impact its timing, energy expenditure, and path taken. The extent to which nocturnal migrants select departure nights based on wind (wind selectivity) and compensate for wind drift remains unclear. In this paper, we determine the effect of wind selectivity and partial drift compensation on the probability of successfully arriving at a destination area and on overall migration speed. To do so, we developed an individual-based model (IBM) to simulate full drift and partial compensation migration of juvenile Willow Warblers (Phylloscopus trochilus) along the southwesterly (SW) European migration corridor to the Iberian coast. Various degrees of wind selectivity were tested according to how large a drift angle and transport cost (mechanical energy per unit distance) individuals were willing to tolerate on departure after dusk. In order to assess model results, we used radar measurements of nocturnal migration to estimate the wind selectivity and proportional drift among passerines flying in SW directions. Migration speeds in the IBM were highest for partial compensation populations tolerating at least 25% extra transport cost compared to windless conditions, which allowed more frequent departure opportunities. Drift tolerance affected migration speeds only weakly, whereas arrival probabilities were highest with drift tolerances below 20°. The radar measurements were indicative of low drift tolerance, 25% extra transport cost tolerance and partial compensation. We conclude that along migration corridors with generally nonsupportive winds, juvenile passerines should not strictly select supportive winds but partially compensate for drift to increase their chances for timely and accurate arrival.

Animal orientation strategies for movement in flows

For organisms that fly or swim, movement results from the combined effects of the moving medium - air or water - and the organism's own locomotion. For larger organisms, propulsion contributes significantly to progress but the flow usually still provides significant opposition or assistance, or produces lateral displacement ('drift'). Animals show a range of responses to flows, depending on the direction of the flow relative to their preferred direction, the speed of the flow relative to their own self-propelled speed, the incidence of flows in different directions and the proportion of the journey remaining. We here present a classification of responses based on the direction of the resulting movement relative to flow and preferred direction, which is applicable to a range of taxa and environments. The responses adopted in particular circumstances are related to the organisms' locomotory and sensory capacities and the environmental cues available. Advances in biologging technologies and particle tracking models are now providing a wealth of data, which often demonstrate a striking level of convergence in the strategies that very different animals living in very different environments employ when moving in a flow.

Migratory navigation in birds: new opportunities in an era of fast-developing tracking technology

Birds have remained the dominant model for studying the mechanisms of animal navigation for decades, with much of what has been discovered coming from laboratory studies or model systems. The miniaturisation of tracking technology in recent years now promises opportunities for studying navigation during migration itself (migratory navigation) on an unprecedented scale. Even if migration tracking studies are principally being designed for other purposes, we argue that attention to salient environmental variables during the design or analysis of a study may enable a host of navigational questions to be addressed, greatly enriching the field. We explore candidate variables in the form of a series of contrasts (e.g. land vs ocean or night vs day migration), which may vary naturally between migratory species, populations or even within the life span of a migrating individual. We discuss how these contrasts might help address questions of sensory mechanisms, spatiotemporal representational strategies and adaptive variation in navigational ability. We suggest that this comparative approach may help enrich our knowledge about the natural history of migratory navigation in birds.

Breeding origin and migration pattern of dunlin (Calidris alpina) revealed by mitochondrial DNA analysis

The large-scale migration of birds has been studied extensively by recoveries of ringed birds. However, there is very little ringing data from the arctic breeding grounds of waders. Here, the migration pattern of the dunlin, Calidris alpina, is studied with population genetic markers, using haplotype frequencies to estimate the breeding origin of migrating and wintering populations. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction analysis of DNA from the mitochondrial control region was used to study the breeding origins of morphologically similar winter populations in the western Palaearctic, and to describe the population structure of the dunlin during winter. Also migrating dunlin from various stopover sites in Europe, Africa and Asia, were analysed with respect to their mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes. The genetic markers clearly show that the dunlin has a parallel migration system, with populations breeding in the western Palaearctic wintering mainly in the western part of the wintering range, and dunlin populations breeding further east wintering further east. The results also show that the distance between breeding and wintering area increases eastwards in this region.

Bird Migration Through a Mountain Pass Studied With High Resolution Radar, Ceilometers, and Census

Autumnal migration was studied with high-resolution radar, ceilometer, and daily census in the area of Franconia Notch, a major pass in the northern Appalachian Mountains. Under synoptic conditions favorable for migration, broadfront movements of migrants toward the south passed over the mountains, often above a temperature inversion. Birds at lower elevations appeared to be influenced by local topography. Birds moving southwest were concentrated along the face of the mountain range. Birds appeared to deviate their flights to follow local topography through the pass. Specific migratory behavior was not associated with species or species groups. Under synoptic conditions unfavorable for southward migration, multimodal movements probably associated with local flights were as dense as the southward migrations described above. Avian migrants reacting to local terrain may result in concentrations of migrants over ridge summits or other topographic features.

Wind and orientation of migrating birds: a review

Migratory flights are strongly affected by wind, and birds have developed many adaptations to cope with wind effects. By day, overland migrants at high altitudes may often allow crosswinds to drift their tracks laterally from the preferred heading. In contrast, many birds at low altitude adjust their headings to compensate for drift, and may overcompensate to allow for previous drift. The relative motion of landscape features is probably used to sense drift, at least by day. By night, some overland migrants compensate fully for drift, but others do not. Compensation may be more common where there are prominent topographic features. Over the sea, compensation is rarely if ever total; wave patterns may allow partial compensation. Other adaptations can include reduction of drift by flying at times and/or altitudes without strong crosswinds. Some birds recognize the need to change course to allow for previous wind displacement, and reorient at least roughly toward the original route or destination. Some juveniles en route to previously unvisited wintering grounds seem to have this ability, but corroboration is needed. Such reorientation may not require a true navigation ability. However, some birds have unexplained abilities to sense the wind while aloft.

Ecological causes and consequences of bird orientation

An advanced orientation capability offers possibilities for birds to optimize movement patterns in a wide variety of ecological situations. The adaptive significance of various patterns of angular dispersion and of orientation responses to topography and sociality are elucidated. The orientation capacity is characterized by flexibility, exemplified by reorientation, promoting safety and restoration of fat reserves during migration. There are also limitations to the orientation process, leading to costs of migration through mis- or disorientation, and to constraints on the evolution of routes and timing of migratory flights. Young migrants may acquire an erroneous compass sense, and misorient several thousands of kilometers off their normal course. Widespread and dense fog of long duration causes disorientation and mortality among land birds migrating over the sea. Orientational constraints in the evolution of migration routes may be most easily disclosed at high geographic and magnetic latitudes. Here the birds are faced with special difficulties in using their celestial as well as their magnetic compasses. The sun compass could be used for great circle orientation, but observed spring flight trajectories of high-arctic waders and geese seem to conform with rhumbline routes.

Evolutionary aspects of orientation and migration in birds

Evolutionary aspects of avian orientation and navigation are overviewed. A theoretical approach to the evolution of complex (endogenously programmed) migratory behavior is presented, using the comparative method of ordering a progression in existing behavioral characteristics from dispersal, to facultative migration, to obligate migration.