Benjamin M. Van Doren

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.

Migration timing and its determinants for nocturnal migratory birds during autumn migration

1. Migration is a common strategy used by birds that breed in seasonal environments, and multiple environmental and biological factors determine the timing of migration. How these factors operate in combination during autumn migration, which is considered to be under weaker time constraints relative to spring migration, is not clear. 2. Here, we examine the patterns and determinants of migration timing for nocturnal migrants during autumn migration in the north-eastern USA using nocturnal reflectivity data from 12 weather surveillance radar stations and modelled diurnal probability of occurrence for 142 species of nocturnal migrants. We first model the capacity of seasonal atmospheric conditions (wind and precipitation) and ecological productivity (vegetation greenness) to predict autumn migration intensity. We then test predictions, formulated under optimal migration theory, on how migration timing should be related to assemblage-level estimates of body size and total migration distance within the context of dietary guild (insectivore and omnivore) and level of dietary plasticity during autumn migration. 3. Our results indicate seasonal declines in ecological productivity delineate the beginning and end of peak migration, whose intensity is best predicted by the velocity of winds at migration altitudes. Insectivorous migrants departed earlier in the season and, consistent with our predictions, large-bodied and long-distance insectivorous migrants departed the earliest. Contrary to our predictions, large-bodied and some long-distance omnivorous migrants departed later in the season, patterns that were replicated in part by insectivorous migrants that displayed dietary plasticity during autumn migration. 4. Our findings indicate migration timing in the region is dictated by optimality strategies, modified based on the breadth and flexibility of migrants foraging diets, with declining ecological productivity defining possible resource thresholds during which migration occurs when winds at migration altitudes are mild. These observations provide the basis to assess how avian migration strategies may be affected by adjustments in seasonal patterns of atmospheric circulation and ecological productivity that may occur under global climate change.

Autumn morning flights of migrant songbirds in the northeastern United States are linked to nocturnal migration and winds aloft

ABSTRACT Many passerines that typically migrate at night also engage in migratory flights just after sunrise. These widely observed “morning flights” often involve birds flying in directions other than those aimed toward their ultimate destinations, especially in coastal areas. Morning flights have received little formal investigation, and their study may improve our understanding of how birds orient themselves during and after nocturnal movements and how they use stopover habitat. We studied autumn morning flights in the northeastern United States to identify associations between the number of birds undertaking morning flights and the magnitude of nocturnal migratory movements, nocturnal winds, and local topography. Our analyses included observations of more than 15,000 passerines at 7 locations. We found positive relationships between morning flight size and nocturnal migration density and winds aloft: Significantly more birds flew following larger nocturnal movements, quantified from weather surveillance radar and recordings of nocturnal flight calls, and after stronger nocturnal crosswinds. We also found consistent differences in morning flight size and direction among sites. These patterns are consistent with migrants engaging in morning flight as a corrective measure following displacement by nocturnal winds and to search for suitable stopover habitat.

High-intensity urban light installation dramatically alters nocturnal bird migration

Significance Artificial light at night is a novel stimulus in the evolutionary history of nocturnal animals. Light pollution can significantly alter these organisms’ behaviors, from migration to foraging to vocal communication. Nocturnally migrating birds are particularly susceptible to artificial light because of adaptations and requirements for navigating and orienting in darkness. However, light’s effects on in-flight behaviors have not been well quantified, especially in urbanized environments. Here we report that an iconic urban light installation dramatically altered multiple behaviors of nocturnally migrating birds—but these effects disappeared when lights were extinguished. We recommend selective removal of light pollution during nights with substantial bird migration to mitigate negative effects on birds, in particular collisions with lighted structures. Billions of nocturnally migrating birds move through increasingly photopolluted skies, relying on cues for navigation and orientation that artificial light at night (ALAN) can impair. However, no studies have quantified avian responses to powerful ground-based light sources in urban areas. We studied effects of ALAN on migrating birds by monitoring the beams of the National September 11 Memorial & Museums “Tribute in Light” in New York, quantifying behavioral responses with radar and acoustic sensors and modeling disorientation and attraction with simulations. This single light source induced significant behavioral alterations in birds, even in good visibility conditions, in this heavily photopolluted environment, and to altitudes up to 4 km. We estimate that the installation influenced ≈1.1 million birds during our study period of 7 d over 7 y. When the installation was illuminated, birds aggregated in high densities, decreased flight speeds, followed circular flight paths, and vocalized frequently. Simulations revealed a high probability of disorientation and subsequent attraction for nearby birds, and bird densities near the installation exceeded magnitudes 20 times greater than surrounding baseline densities during each year’s observations. However, behavioral disruptions disappeared when lights were extinguished, suggesting that selective removal of light during nights with substantial bird migration is a viable strategy for minimizing potentially fatal interactions among ALAN, structures, and birds. Our results also highlight the value of additional studies describing behavioral patterns of nocturnally migrating birds in powerful lights in urban areas as well as conservation implications for such lighting installations.

Correlated patterns of genetic diversity and differentiation across an avian family

Comparative studies of closely related taxa can provide insights into the evolutionary forces that shape genome evolution and the prevalence of convergent molecular evolution. We investigated patterns of genetic diversity and differentiation in stonechats (genus Saxicola), a widely distributed avian species complex with phenotypic variation in plumage, morphology and migratory behaviour, to ask whether similar genomic regions have become differentiated in independent, but closely related, taxa. We used whole‐genome pooled sequencing of 262 individuals from five taxa and found that levels of genetic diversity and divergence are strongly correlated among different stonechat taxa. We then asked whether these patterns remain correlated at deeper evolutionary scales and found that homologous genomic regions have become differentiated in stonechats and the closely related Ficedula flycatchers. Such correlation across a range of evolutionary divergence and among phylogenetically independent comparisons suggests that similar processes may be driving the differentiation of these independently evolving lineages, which in turn may be the result of intrinsic properties of particular genomic regions (e.g. areas of low recombination). Consequently, studies employing genome scans to search for areas important for reproductive isolation or adaptation should account for corresponding regions of differentiation, as these regions may not necessarily represent speciation islands or evidence of local adaptation.

Seasonal differences in landbird migration strategies

ABSTRACT Migrating birds make strategic decisions at multiple temporal and spatial scales. They must select flight altitudes, speeds, and orientations in order to maintain preferred directions of movement and to minimize energy expenditure and risk. Spring flights follow a rapid phenology, but how this rapid transit translates to in-flight decisions is not clear. We described flight strategies of nocturnally migrating landbirds using 6 weather surveillance radars during spring (2013–2015) and fall (2013–2014) migratory periods in the eastern United States to investigate seasonal decision-making patterns and how climate change may influence these trends. During spring, we found groundspeed and airspeed of migrants to be significantly higher than those of fall migrants; compensation for wind drift was also significantly greater during spring. Our results indicate that birds make more rapid and precise flights in spring that are only partially explained by meteorological phenomena. Future applications at greater spatial scales will allow direct comparisons of in-flight behaviors with predictions from migration theory.

Seasonal changes in the altitudinal distribution of nocturnally migrating birds during autumn migration

Wind plays a significant role in the flight altitudes selected by nocturnally migrating birds. At mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, atmospheric conditions are dictated by the polar-front jet stream, whose amplitude increases in the autumn. One consequence for migratory birds is that the region’s prevailing westerly winds become progressively stronger at higher migration altitudes. We expect this seasonality in wind speed to result in migrants occupying progressively lower flight altitudes, which we test using density estimates of nocturnal migrants at 100 m altitudinal intervals from 12 weather surveillance radar stations located in the northeastern USA. Contrary to our expectations, median migration altitudes deviated little across the season, and the variance was lower during the middle of the season and higher during the beginning and especially the end of the season. Early-season migrants included small- to intermediate-sized long-distance migrants in the orders Charadriiformes and Passeriformes, and late-season migrants included large-bodied and intermediate-distance migrants in the order Anseriformes. Therefore, seasonality in the composition of migratory species, and related variation in migration strategies and behaviours, resulted in a convex–concave bounded distribution of migration altitudes. Our results provide a basis for assessing the implications for migratory bird populations of changes in mid-latitude atmospheric conditions probably occurring under global climate change.

Innovative Visualizations Shed Light on Avian Nocturnal Migration.

Globally, billions of flying animals undergo seasonal migrations, many of which occur at night. The temporal and spatial scales at which migrations occur and our inability to directly observe these nocturnal movements makes monitoring and characterizing this critical period in migratory animals’ life cycles difficult. Remote sensing, therefore, has played an important role in our understanding of large-scale nocturnal bird migrations. Weather surveillance radar networks in Europe and North America have great potential for long-term low-cost monitoring of bird migration at scales that have previously been impossible to achieve. Such long-term monitoring, however, poses a number of challenges for the ornithological and ecological communities: how does one take advantage of this vast data resource, integrate information across multiple sensors and large spatial and temporal scales, and visually represent the data for interpretation and dissemination, considering the dynamic nature of migration? We assembled an interdisciplinary team of ecologists, meteorologists, computer scientists, and graphic designers to develop two different flow visualizations, which are interactive and open source, in order to create novel representations of broad-front nocturnal bird migration to address a primary impediment to long-term, large-scale nocturnal migration monitoring. We have applied these visualization techniques to mass bird migration events recorded by two different weather surveillance radar networks covering regions in Europe and North America. These applications show the flexibility and portability of such an approach. The visualizations provide an intuitive representation of the scale and dynamics of these complex systems, are easily accessible for a broad interest group, and are biologically insightful. Additionally, they facilitate fundamental ecological research, conservation, mitigation of human–wildlife conflicts, improvement of meteorological products, and public outreach, education, and engagement.

Navigating north: how body mass and winds shape avian flight behaviours across a North American migratory flyway

The migratory patterns of birds have been the focus of ecologists for millennia. What behavioural traits underlie these remarkably consistent movements? Addressing this question is central to advancing our understanding of migratory flight strategies and requires the integration of information across levels of biological organisation, e.g. species to communities. Here, we combine species-specific observations from the eBird citizen-science database with observations aggregated from weather surveillance radars during spring migration in central North America. Our results confirm a core prediction of migration theory at an unprecedented national scale: body mass predicts variation in flight strategies across latitudes, with larger-bodied species flying faster and compensating more for wind drift. We also find evidence that migrants travelling northward earlier in the spring increasingly compensate for wind drift at higher latitudes. This integration of information across biological scales provides new insight into patterns and determinants of broad-scale flight strategies of migratory birds.

Comparative analysis examining patterns of genomic differentiation across multiple episodes of population divergence in birds

Heterogeneous patterns of genomic differentiation are commonly documented between closely related populations and there is considerable interest in identifying factors that contribute to their formation. These factors could include genomic features (e.g., areas of low recombination) that promote processes like linked selection (positive or purifying selection that affects linked neutral sites) at specific genomic regions. Examinations of repeatable patterns of differentiation across population pairs can provide insight into the role of these factors. Birds are well suited for this work, as genome structure is conserved across this group. Accordingly, we reestimated relative (FST) and absolute (dXY) differentiation between eight sister pairs of birds that span a broad taxonomic range using a common pipeline. Across pairs, there were modest but significant correlations in window‐based estimates of differentiation (up to 3% of variation explained for FST and 26% for dXY), supporting a role for processes at conserved genomic features in generating heterogeneous patterns of differentiation; processes specific to each episode of population divergence likely explain the remaining variation. The role genomic features play was reinforced by linear models identifying several genomic variables (e.g., gene densities) as significant predictors of FST and dXY repeatability. FST repeatability was higher among pairs that were further along the speciation continuum (i.e., more reproductively isolated) providing further insight into how genomic differentiation changes with population divergence; early stages of speciation may be dominated by positive selection that is different between pairs but becomes integrated with processes acting according to shared genomic features as speciation proceeds.