Ben Winger News Today

Wildlife questions answered by Maine Audubon Staff Naturalist Doug Hitchcox.

Birds use Earth’s magnetic field to migrate, but severe space weather may interfere with navigation and reduce the number of birds in the sky.

In 2024, the sun enters its solar maximum—birds dont know whats about to hit them. Space weather may seriously send their internal compasses into disarray.

Birds are getting lost during migration season as solar storms warp the natural compass of the birds. Read more here.

"Our study suggests that fewer birds migrate during large geomagnetic storms," study author and University of Michigan ecologist Ben Winger told Newsweek.

New research suggests that solar storms interfere with the magnetic compass that birds use for long-distance travel

Severe space weather events, especially in overcast conditions in autumn, hinder birds' ability to migrate at night, a new study shows.

<p>It's well-known that birds and other animals rely on Earth's magnetic field for long-distance navigation during seasonal migrations.</p> <p> </p>

When space weather, like solar storms, disrupts the magnetic field, fewer birds choose to fly and those that do often end up disorientated or lost due to the disruptions to their navigation.

Lester Graham / Michigan Radio Birds are beginning to migrate north. The Great Lakes flyway means a large number of those birds will be flying over Michigan. It also means at night birds will be crashing into buildings with lights on. Artificial light confuses them. Ben Winger is in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Museum of Zoology at the University of Michigan. Credit Lester Graham / Michigan Radio “And a city that produces a lot of artificial light at night ...