![\"migrating](\"https:\/\/archive.ioplus.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/migrating-birds.jpg\")
To establish whether migrating songbirds also used magnetic cues as a destination pin to re-locate nesting sites, the study published the same day in Science<\/a> analysed \u2018ringing recoveries\u2019 from more than 17,500 reed warblers collected over eight decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ringing data logs the location of the bird when the leg ring is fitted and again when the bird is recovered \u2013 building a record of any changes to the birds\u2019 nesting positions from one year to the next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The research team found that as the Earth\u2019s magnetic field moved year on year, the logged locations of the returning warblers moved correspondingly, suggesting a geomagnetic influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Previous studies have shown that migratory birds inherit \u2018clock and compass\u2019 information from their parents, and that experienced birds can use the Earth\u2019s magnetic field as a navigation aid. However, little was known about how migrating birds know precisely when and where their journey should end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Joe Wynn, formerly of the University of Oxford and now a researcher at the Institute for Avian Research in Germany, said:\u00a0\u201cWhile we know an increasing amount about how birds inherit migratory information from their parents, how they return to the same site year-on-year with pinpoint accuracy has remained elusive. It\u2019s quite exciting, therefore, that we\u2019ve been able to find evidence that magnetic cues could be used by songbirds trying to re-locate their homes\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the warblers seemed to be using geomagnetic markers to navigate, it was still unclear which magnetic cues were used by warblers to pinpoint their breeding sites over large distances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Using the starting position from the ring data and overlaying variations in the earth\u2019s magnetic values, researchers estimated where the bird should return to the following year, depending on which cues the warblers responded to. The study used three models of navigation based on different magnetic cues mapping the predicted recovery sites against the logged ringing recovery sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The researchers reported evidence that the warblers used a single magnetic cue \u2013 magnetic inclination (the \u2018dip angle\u2019 of the earth’s magnetic field) \u2013 to find their natal or breeding sites by using it as a stop sign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also interesting: Baby bats particularly vulnerable<\/a> to encounters with wind turbines<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1788,"featured_media":350507,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":""},"categories":[26049],"tags":[126650,126652,126654,44434],"location":[],"internal_archives":[],"class_list":["post-350504","selected","type-selected","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobility","tag-joe-wynn","tag-magnetic-field","tag-migrating-birds","tag-oxford-university"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/RC9b8uxh-lf2XZqut-migrating-birds-strand-1.jpg","coauthors":[],"author_meta":{"author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/ewout-kieckens\/","display_name":"Ewout Kieckens"},"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 4 years ago","modified":"Updated 4 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on January 28, 2022","modified":"Updated on January 28, 2022"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on January 28, 2022 7:00 pm","modified":"Updated on January 28, 2022 7:00 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"\u00a9 Pixabay","tax_additional":{"category":{"linked":["Mobility<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Mobility<\/span>"],"slug":"category","name":"Categories"},"post_tag":{"linked":["Joe Wynn<\/a>","magnetic field<\/a>","migrating birds<\/a>","Oxford University<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Joe Wynn<\/span>","magnetic field<\/span>","migrating birds<\/span>","Oxford University<\/span>"],"slug":"post_tag","name":"Tags"},"language":{"linked":["EN<\/a>"],"unlinked":["EN<\/span>"],"slug":"language","name":"Tags"},"post_translations":{"linked":["pll_61f42b655e9a4<\/a>"],"unlinked":["pll_61f42b655e9a4<\/span>"],"slug":"post_translations","name":""},"location":{"linked":[],"unlinked":[],"slug":"location","name":"Locations"},"internal_archives":{"linked":[],"unlinked":[],"slug":"internal_archives","name":"Internal Archives"}},"series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/selected\/350504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/selected"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/selected"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350504"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=350504"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=350504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Clock and compass<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Ring data<\/h3>\n\n\n\n