MONTPELIER, VT – A new study has led to the tracking of a little songbird that warms up in the forests of northern North America on a 1,700-mile (2,735-kilometer). The study further reveals that as part of their winter migration to South America, the songbird summers over-the-ocean journey from the northeastern United States and eastern Canada to the Caribbean.
The study began in the summer of 2013 and all along scientists had been suspecting that the blackpoll warbler must have made its journey to the Caribbean over the ocean. However, the first flight was proven when scientists attached tracking devices to the birds. This is what the results published in the journal Biology Letters indicated.
“The fact that this half-an-ounce bird can take such a highly risky journey over the open ocean is so spectacular and astounding”. One of the authors of the study Chris Rimmer of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies exclaimed.
These kinds of warblers are commonly found in the Northern Parts of America. However, it is notable that their numbers have dwindled and according to Rimmer, the study is likely to give us more focus of giving more attention into driving these declines. Before heading to South, they are known for bulking up by eating insects usually found near their coastal departure points.
Understanding how these birds migrate will help the scientists learn more about the consequences of shifting climate. These are the feelings expressed by Andrew Farnsworth who was not involved in the study but specializes in migration biology. In as much as many more birds are known to fly over long distances and over water, warbler has been described as a different species being a forest dweller. There are those that winter in South America and fly through Mexico and Central America.
19 blackpolls were tagged on Vermont’s Mount Mansfield and 18others in two locations in Nova Scotia. Three and other two were recaptured with the tracking device attached in Vermont and Nova Scotia respectively.