Alternate non-stop migration strategies of pied flycatchers to cross the Sahara desert.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Ouwehand J
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4881342 | biostudies-other | 2016 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
Publications
Alternate non-stop migration strategies of pied flycatchers to cross the Sahara desert.
Ouwehand Janne J Both Christiaan C
Biology letters 20160401 4
Each year more than two billion songbirds cross the Sahara, but how they perform this formidable task is largely unknown. Using geolocation tracks from 27 pied flycatchers, a nocturnally migrating passerine, we show that most birds made diurnal flights in both autumn and spring. These diurnal flights were estimated to be part of non-stop flights of mostly 40-60 h. In spring, birds flew across the Sahara, while autumn migration probably circumpassed part of the desert, through a long oversea flig ...[more]
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