Natures wonders: more on bird migration correction (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, February 12, 2021, 21:05 (1161 days ago) @ David Turell

If blown off course warblers can still get where they are going:

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-birds-earth-magnetic-signature.html

"...new research by an international team shows for the first time, how birds displaced in this way are able to navigate back to their migratory route and gives us an insight into how they accomplish this feat.

"Writing in Current Biology, the team from Bangor and Keele Universities describe how reed warblers can navigate from a 'magnetic position' beyond what they have experienced in their normal migration route, back towards that correct route.

"Different parts of the Earth have a distinct 'geomagnetic signature' according to their location. This is a combination of the strength of the geomagnetic field, the magnetic inclination or the dip angle between magnetic field lines and the horizon and the magnetic declination, or the angle between directions to the geographic and magnetic North poles.

"Adult birds already familiar with their migration route, and its general magnetic signatures, were held in captivity for a short period before being released back into the wild, and exposed to a simulation of the earth's magnetic signature at a location thousands of miles beyond the birds' natural migratory corridor.

"Despite remaining physically located at their capture site and experiencing all other sensory clues about their location, including starlight and the sights, smell and sounds of their actual location, the birds still showed the urge to begin their journey as though they were in the location suggested by the magnetic signal they were experiencing.

"They oriented themselves to fly in a direction which would lead them 'back' to their migratory path from the location suggested to them by the magnetic signals they were experiencing.

"This shows that the earth's magnetic field is the key factor in guiding reed warblers when they are blown off course.

"'The overriding impulse was to respond to the magnetic information they were receiving," explained Richard Holland of Bangor University's School of Natural Sciences.

"What our current work shows is that birds are able to sense that they are beyond the bounds of the magnetic fields that are familiar to them from their year-round movements, and are able to extrapolate their position sufficiently from the signals. This fascinating ability enables bird to navigate towards their normal migration route.'"

Comment: If migration is so important to lifestyle The mechanism that controls migration must contain a correction mechanism also. My resumption is God designed it. I don't think birds figured out these routes bit by bit. What was the reward in partial trips?