migration

The migration behavior of starlings appears to be hereditary and not learned

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To find out how migratory birds find their way, sparrows were translocated from autumn stopovers along the Dutch North Sea coast to Switzerland (red, 1948–1957) and Spain (blue, 1959–1962). Source: Biology Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0217 Young, naive starlings search for their wintering areas independently of experienced conspecifics. Starlings are very social birds all year round, … Read more

The great insect migration of the Pyrenees | Turncoat

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Defector home

Every autumn, a narrow pass in the Pyrenees Mountains between southern France and northeastern Spain is overrun by a flood of marmalade hoverflies, pollinators with citrus-colored bodies and black stripes. The hoverflies avoid the mountain’s strong headwinds by flying close to the ground, making the sunlit flurries “almost look like a river of golden light,” … Read more