Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

These birds fly high when the full Moon hangs in the sky

Moonlit nights lure the northern black swift to altitudes of more than 4,000 metres — much higher than they soar on nights when the Moon is new.
American Black Swift (Cypseloides niger) pair at nest, Montana.

Black swifts on the nest. The northern black swift flies high on moonlit nights — but a total lunar eclipse in 2019 sent them hurrying to lower altitudes. Credit: Donald M. Jones/Nature Picture Library

How high some birds fly at night depends on how brightly the Moon shines1.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 603, 552 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00738-8

References

  1. Hedenström, A. et al. Curr. Biol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.03.006 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links