Think that you've got a long commute into the office every morning? Think again. While you may be used to sitting in traffic for hours on end, it turns out that one little songbird's lengthy migration will put your commute to shame.
In a new study published today in the journal Biology Letters, researchers with University of Massachusetts, Amherst revealed "irrefutable evidence" that indicates that the tiny Blackpoll Warblers known to migrate each Fall from New England to South America are able to make the lengthy journey nonstop, in a direct line over the Atlantic Ocean. For more than half of a century researchers have revealed startling clues that indicated the warblers were able to make the commute quite quickly, however, until now no one knew exactly how the boreal forest songbirds were able to accomplish the task.
Utilizing tiny light-sensing geolocators, which researchers were able to equip on the tiny warblers' back, the team was able to track the nonstop trip that covered between 1,410 and 1,721 miles in under three days.
"For small songbirds, we are only just now beginning to understand the migratory routes that connect temperate breeding grounds to tropical wintering areas" lead author of the study, Bill DeLuca says. "We're really excited to report that this is one of the longest nonstop overwater flights ever recorded for a songbird, and finally confirms what has long been believed to be one of the most extraordinary migratory feats on the planet."
But it wasn't just the length of the trip, nor the speed that shocked researchers. It was the path they chose, as well. As a water landing could be potentially fatal to a small warbler, researchers had not anticipated that the migrating groups would come primarily over the Atlantic Ocean. Instead they thought that like the few other migratory songbirds that choose to winter south of the Equator the warblers would take the beaten path down the continental route through Mexico and Central America, where pitstops are readily available.
Though the researchers say that the 40 birds sampled in Vermont and Nova Scotia combined only comprises a very small window of the species' entire breeding range, they are excited to see such a small species capable of tackling a daunting feat. And with the use of their new and improved, light-level geolocators the team believes that their future studies will continue to reveal the astounding ability of this small warbler species and many others like it.
"It was pretty thrilling to get the return birds back, because their migratory feat in itself is on the brink of impossibility" DeLuca says. "Many migratory songbirds, blackpolls included, are experiencing alarming population declines for a variety of reasons, if we can learn more about where these birds spend their time, particularly during the nonbreeding season, we can begin to examine and address what might be causing the declines."
