Solar Storms Are Warping Birds' Natural Compass, Causing Them to Get Lost During Migration Season

(Photo : Stephen Maturen / Getty Images)
Due to solar storms bending natural compass of migrating birds, more feathered friends are getting lost during the season.

Birds are becoming disoriented during the migratory season as a result of solar storms hitting the Earth's magnetic field and warping the natural compass of the birds.

Migration Season and the Magnetic Field

Researchers from the University of Michigan revealed that migratory birds, like geese, swans, sandpipers, and thrushes, depend on Earth's magnetic field for navigation during their migrations. However, when solar activity generates electromagnetic radiation and charged particles that interfere with the planet's magnetic field, these birds often become disoriented or lost.

Vagrancy in birds has been linked to such disruptions caused by solar activity. These findings, based on extensive long-term datasets, establish a previously unknown connection between nocturnal bird migration and geomagnetic disturbances. This research sheds light on how space weather impacts the behavior of migratory birds, highlighting the importance of Earth's magnetic field in their navigation.

Geomagnetic Disturbances

Using a 23-year dataset that tracked bird migration through the US Great Plains, a prominent migratory route spanning over a thousand miles from Texas to North Dakota, researchers uncovered crucial insights. This corridor hosts a diverse bird population, with 73% being perching birds (like thrushes and warblers), 12% consisting of shorebirds (including sandpipers and plovers), and 9% being waterfowl like ducks, geese, and swans.

The team harnessed data from 37 NEXRAD radar stations in this central flyway, amassing 1.7 million scans from fall, and 1.4 million from spring. They correlated this radar data with a customized geomagnetic disturbance index, which quantified the maximum hourly change in magnetic conditions. Their major challenge lay in condensing years of ground magnetic field observations into this index, requiring rigorous data quality assessment and validation.

The researchers employed two statistical models, accounting for weather, time of night, longitude, and latitude, to examine how geomagnetic disturbances impact bird migration in this critical pathway.

Unpredictable Space Weather

Magnetic fields are occasionally disrupted by solar bursts, affecting birds' navigation, and leading to vagrants appearing far from their migratory range. Artificial obstacles, like lights, can also have dire consequences. Recently, nearly 1000 songbirds tragically perished in Chicago as they were pushed off course over Lake Michigan and collided with illuminated windows at McCormick Place convention center due to adverse weather conditions.

Researchers discovered that during space weather disturbances, fewer birds migrate. Those that do tend to drift with the wind rather than battling crosswinds, especially in Autumn. Ben Winger, the senior author and assistant professor at the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, noted their findings support a decrease in migration intensity during high geomagnetic disturbance.

This study offers ecological insights into the broader impacts of space weather on migration dynamics, complementing extensive research on animal magnetoreception mechanisms.

Also Read: Colossal Sunspot Spotted by NASA Grows Bigger; CMEs Can Disrupt Earth's Power Grids

Effort Flying During Solar Storms

In their study, researchers observed a 25% reduction in 'effort flying' against the wind under cloudy skies during strong solar storms in Autumn. This implies that obscured celestial cues and magnetic disruption may hinder birds' navigation. Lead author Eric Gulson-Castillo, a U-M doctoral student, indicated that fewer birds migrate during geomagnetic disturbances, particularly facing navigation difficulties, especially during cloudy Autumn conditions. Consequently, birds may align more with the wind, conserving energy

This research underscores how environmental factors, including imperceptible geomagnetic disturbances or solar storms, influence animal behaviors and population-level movement patterns.

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