{"id":2178335,"date":"2024-11-09T06:00:27","date_gmt":"2024-11-09T05:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=2178335"},"modified":"2024-11-01T09:27:42","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T08:27:42","slug":"high-flying-life-of-australias-birds-revealed-in-new-detail-thanks-to-weather-radars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/high-flying-life-of-australias-birds-revealed-in-new-detail-thanks-to-weather-radars\/","title":{"rendered":"High-flying life of Australia\u2019s birds revealed in new detail \u2013 thanks to weather radars"},"content":{"rendered":"

The yearly travel plans of birds up and down Australia\u2019s east coast have been revealed for the first time, using the same tool that tracks the weather \u2013 a development experts say could have \u201cprofound\u201d implications for conservation as more windfarms are built.<\/p>\n

Scientists have used weather radars to show that bird migration across eastern Australia occurs in structured patterns. While many Australian bird species are known to be seasonally migratory, scientists previously did not know to what extent a distinct system existed.<\/p>\n

New research, published in the journal Current Biology, used years of radar data to determine two pulses of bird migration across the east coast \u2013 northwards from January to June and southwards from July to December.<\/p>\n

In autumn, there were on average 60,000 migrating birds per kilometre each year, the researchers found using data from 2018 to 2022.<\/p>\n

Shi Xu, the study\u2019s lead author and a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland, said weather radar can \u201cobserve how birds, insects or bats take flight to the air and move in the airspace\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt quantifies the amount of movement that happens in the area, just like it measures the amount of rainfall.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Weather
Weather radar showing the movement of migrating birds, insects and bats after sunset in the Brisbane region on the night of April 12, 2020. Pink and red show areas of strongest signal. Photograph: Shi Xu \/ University of Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The team used complex mathematical modelling to eliminate insect and flying fox movement from the data.<\/p>\n

The study\u2019s co-author Prof Richard Fuller, also of the University of Queensland, said: \u201cThere\u2019s a wave of migration that comes out of Victoria and Tasmania and up the east coast, as far as the southern border of the tropics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Understanding bird migration pathways in Australia was a \u201chugely important and urgent issue\u201d in the context of windfarms being developed, Fuller said.<\/p>\n

\u201cQueensland and Tasmania are intimately connected by birds that are moving between those places and across many of the landscapes in between, so we\u2019ve got to have a joined up conservation effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast to bird migration in the northern hemisphere, which is predominantly nocturnal, the researchers also found significant levels of daytime migration, which they say may be unique to Australia.<\/p>\n

Sean Dooley, the national public affairs manager of BirdLife Australia, who was not involved in the study, said the research showed variability in the timing and direction of migration, which appeared to be partially driven by differing climate conditions between seasons.<\/p>\n