Sunsets Crucial to Bird Migration, Study Finds
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Migrating birds use the Earth’s magnetic fields to navigate, but sunsets also play a crucial role, according to new research reported in the journal Science.
Biologist Martin Wikelski of Princeton University and his colleagues studied thrushes flying north, placing them in a magnetic field that disrupted their internal compass. When the birds were released, they flew west instead of north. But the next day, after a sunset, they started flying in the right direction again.
They continued north until they reached a certain latitude, and then, for reasons that are still unclear, flew east and west looking for familiar breeding grounds.
