Multi-sensor tracking reveals the extent of nocturnal migration in landbirds.

DOI
Publisher DOI
PubMed ID
42419298
Abstract
Most bird species are diurnal but drastically change their diel cycle of activity to migrate at night. Nocturnal migration has been documented using different methods (e.g., experiments, radar and radio tracking, and acoustic monitoring), but accurately quantifying the proportion of nocturnal versus diurnal flight at the individual and species levels, and understanding how this behavior evolved across the avian tree, has remained methodologically challenging.1,2,3 Such uncertainty is not only of theoretical importance but also limits our ability to mitigate conservation threats, particularly from light pollution and building collisions.4,5,6 With multi-sensor geolocators recording light, barometric pressure, and activity,7,8 we reconstructed high-resolution migratory trajectories9,10 for 411 individuals from 56 small- or medium-sized landbird species across four continents and measured the proportion of each flight that occurred during night or day. Our species-level quantification confirmed nocturnal migration as the dominant strategy among small landbirds, while also providing precise flight proportion estimates across a broad taxonomic sample and refining the classification of several species previously described as partial or facultative diurnal migrants. We found that birds initiated and ended migratory flights near civil dusk and dawn, thereby maximizing nocturnal travel. The phylogenetic signal we detected indicates that nocturnal migration is largely conserved within lineages. While nocturnal migration confers multiple advantages, the relative importance of the proposed drivers remains to be determined.11,12 Our study provides species-specific quantification of nocturnal migration, highlights tracking gaps across taxa and regions, and opens new avenues for studying the evolutionary, ecological, and sensory drivers of nocturnal migratory flights.
Date Issued
2026-07-20
Publication Type
Article
Subjects
activity rhythm
•
animal
•
bird
•
diel cycle
•
diurnal
•
geolocator
•
migration timing
•
navigation
•
nocturnal
Language(s)
en
Author(s)
Dufour, Paul
Nussbaumer, Raphaël
Doniol-Valcroze, Paul
Rime, Yann
Adamík, Peter
Åkesson, Susanne
Barras, Arnaud G
Batbayar, Nyambayar
Beggs, Ian
Bell, Fraser
Benito Ruiz, Alberto
Bensch, Staffan
Bocher, Pierrick
Boves, Than
Brodersen, Jesper
Burgess, Malcolm
Burnus, Lars
Caballero-Lopez, Violeta
Capilla-Lasheras, Pablo
Champagnon, Jocelyn
Contina, Andrea
Conway, Greg
Cooper, Nathan W
Davaasuren, Batmunkh
Donahue, Emily R
Dossman, Bryant C
Duriez, Olivier
Evens, Ruben
Fossøy, Frode
Galletta, Katie J
Günther, Astrid
Hedenström, Anders
Heim, Wieland
Hewson, Chris
Illa, Marc
Jackson, Colin
Jiguet, Frédéric
Johnson, Erik I
Johnson, Matthew
Klement, Diane
Kulkarni, Sonam
Lathouwers, Michiel
Liechti, Felix
Liedvogel, Miriam
Lutgen, Dave
Macías-Torres, Pablo
Meier, Christoph M
Nergui, Jugdernamjil
Osinubi, Samuel Temidayo
Pardo de Santayana, Gonzalo
Procházka, Petr
Reif, Jiří
Rhyne, Garrett
Rushing, Clark
Sjöberg, Sissel
Stokke, Bård G
Szarmach, Stephanie
Thorup, Kasper
Toews, David
Tonra, Christopher M
Tøttrup, Anders P
Tyrrell, Jennifer
Wong, Joanna B
Worm, Alexander
Wynn, Joe
Yohannes, Elizabeth
Zhao, Tianhao
Helm, Barbara
Briedis, Martins
Additional Credits
Journal
Current Biology
Publisher
Cell Press
ISSN
1879-0445
0960-9822
Access(Rights)
open.access
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