Amazing: Scientists discover that 1/2 oz songbird makes 1700 mile open ocean migration trek

[cali]

A tiny songbird that summers in the forests of northern North America has been tracked on a 1,700-mile, over-the-ocean journey from the northeastern United States and eastern Canada to the Caribbean as part of their winter migration to South America, according to a new study.

Scientists had long suspected that the blackpoll warbler had made its journey to the Caribbean over the ocean, but the study that began in the summer of 2013 when scientists attached tracking devices to the birds was the first time that the flight has been proven, according to results published Wednesday in the United Kingdom in the journal Biology Letters.

“It is such a spectacular, astounding feat that this half-an-ounce bird can make what is obviously a perilous, highly risky journey over the open ocean,” said Chris Rimmer of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, one of the authors.

<snip>

In the summer of 2013, scientists tagged 19 blackpolls on Vermont’s Mount Mansfield and 18 in two locations in Nova Scotia. Of those, three were recaptured in Vermont with the tracking device attached and two in Nova Scotia.

Four warblers, including two tagged in Vermont, departed between Sept. 25 and Oct. 21 and flew directly to the islands of Hispaniola or Puerto Rico in flights ranging from 49 to 73 hours. A fifth bird departed Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and flew nearly 1,000 miles before landing in the Turks and Caicos before continuing on to South America.

<snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/energy-environment/tiny-songbird-tracked-across-1700-miles-of-open-ocean/2015/03/31/5f27b03c-d7fb-11e4-bf0b-f648b95a6488_story.html

[Octafish]

1. Amazing creature. I can't wait until all humans treat all life with the respect...

...that living beings deserve.

[malthaussen]

2. What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

-- Mal

[cali]

4. continuing in the humor vein:

A comment from an article about this in the Daily Mail:

Have the Americans found any use for it as a weapon yet?

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3020592/Songbird-s-impossible-1-700-mile-flight-Tracking-blackpoll-warbler-proves-really-cross-continents-without-stopping-food-rest.html#ixzz3W4C87fgm
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[el_bryanto]

3. That's the life - you gotta go where the gigs are.

Those birds probably just have lousy agents.

Bryant

[packman]

5. Probably got a good tail wind-

Last edited Wed Apr 1, 2015, 11:53 AM - Edit history (1)

Seriously, it wouldn't surprise me that these 1/2 oz'ers just literally floated in the wind or used the shifting earth pattern to their advantage.

[XemaSab]

10. No, actually

They're flapping the whole way, sometimes against a headwind.

[packman]

11. That's impressive

You would think that all that energy being used up calorie-wise, would cause them to exhaust themselves and fall into the ocean.

[XemaSab]

12. A lot of them do

[eppur_se_muova]

6. 1/2 oz ~ 14 g. That's less than the weight of three US nickels (15.0 g).

At 13.6 g, six dimes would be slightly less than 1/2 oz.

Fat provides ~9 Calories/g, so a warbler made entirely of fat would carry about ~130 Calories. Hard to see how anything could travel 1000 miles on so little energy, unless it's basically carried on the wind.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

7. DU Rec.

[Dirty Socialist]

8. I have seen a few of them in my yard

Duuring migration. Pretty cool little black and white bird.

[Sheldon Cooper]

9. Given that there are no cats prowling the ocean, this would seem to be a good idea.

[MBS]

13. cool! Here's the Boston Globe article, with photos. .

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/03/31/tiny-blackpoll-warbler-makes-mind-boggling-nonstop-migration/xrfuOBZn7uo5NadrZiV1UN/story.html

Here's one of the photos - more at the link. (Text seems similar to WaPo story)

[Omaha Steve]

14. Was going to post and searched first

K&R!