A podcast host quizzes an ornithologist on how birds navigate, fuel epic journeys and cope as climate change shifts the seasons.
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Welcome back! Today, we're diving into bird migration.
And I've got a genuine bird nerd sitting opposite me.
Guilty as charged. I've been ringing birds for thirty years.
So, why do birds bother migrating at all?
Food, mostly. Northern summers mean endless insects and daylight.
But how on earth do they find their way?
One of their tools seems to be the Earth's magnetic field.
Wait, birds can actually sense magnetism? Seriously?
It looks that way. The leading theory involves proteins in their eyes.
Well... we still can't fully explain the mechanism, to be honest.
And what about birds that migrate at night?
Oh, that's my favourite bit! Some songbirds steer by the stars!
Young buntings learn which point the night sky rotates around.
So they've basically got a planetarium in their heads?
More or less. Minus the gift shop, obviously.
Okay, so who holds the record for distance?
Oh, the Arctic tern! It commutes from pole to pole every year!
Tracked birds have clocked up over seventy thousand kilometres in a year.
Seventy thousand? That's nearly twice around the planet!
And chasing two summers, they see more daylight than any other animal.
But how does a tiny bird fuel a marathon like that?
They gorge beforehand, sometimes almost doubling their body weight.
Honestly, that's my approach to the holiday season too.
Ha! Except they burn it all off crossing the Sahara.
And bar-tailed godwits fly from Alaska to New Zealand nonstop!
Nonstop? Not even a quick break for a snack?
Not once. They even shrink some digestive organs to save weight.
Is climate change throwing all of this off?
I'm afraid it is... and the timing is the real problem.
Springs are coming earlier, but many birds still leave on schedule.
So they arrive after the caterpillar peak has already passed.
Oh no. So the chicks just... go hungry?
Often, yes. We call it a phenological mismatch.
Is there any room for optimism, then?
Well... some species are adapting faster than we'd feared.
But protecting their stopover sites is absolutely non-negotiable.
That's a brilliant note to end on. Thank you so much!
My pleasure. Now go outside and look up!
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