Migrating birds preparing to depart sub-Saharan Africa may use local temperatures to predict the weather at their European destinations and time their arrival accordingly, reports a new study.
In recent decades, spring has come to Europe increasingly early — and birds that must leave Africa in late winter, weeks before they can feel the European breeze, have somehow anticipated the change, still reaching their breeding grounds just as the temperature warms. Nicola Saino and Roberto Ambrosini of the Università degli Studi di Milano in Italy found that February temperatures in the African Sahel and sub-Sahel regions, where many Europe-bound birds winter or stop over, negatively correlate with March and April temperatures in Europe. Thus, a colder African winter could cue the birds to an early-onset European spring.
The researchers support this idea with preliminary evidence that early arrival of seven breeding bird species is associated with colder Februaries in the Sahel. The ties between the African and European climates may, however, have weakened since 1980, they also found. As the world warms further, the birds might have less future success in predicting spring accurately.
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Barnett, A. Predictions on the wing. Nature Clim Change 1, 16 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/climate.2008.5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/climate.2008.5
