Space storms leaving weird impact on birds, claim scientists

The geomagnetic storms can impact the Earth in weird and wonderful ways, ranging from radio blackouts to northern lights, and also affect the birds in unexpected ways.

Scientists have discovered that throughout the world, migratory birds stay on the ground and do not fly amid space weather events because of the effects of the geomagnetic storms.

It was found that the number of migrating birds flying decreased between 9 and 17 percent when severe space weather events occurred and the birds that did fly faced difficulty in navigating their way to their destination, as per a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Newsweek reported.

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"Birds and other animals are well known to use the Earth's magnetic field to orient (determine which direction to fly in) and likely also to navigate," said study co-author Ben Winger, while speaking to Newsweek.

"They likely cue into geographic variation in the inclination and intensity of the magnetic field. This has mostly been studied in pigeons and in small songbirds, but it is thought that many kinds of birds have this ability," he added.

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Winger works as an assistant professor in the University of Michigan's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and also has been a curator of birds at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.

Storms creating difficulty in navigation of birds: study

Geomagnetic storms are alterations of the magnetic fields of the Earth. They occur when the sun's solar plasma ejects coronal mass or because of solar flares.

These interact with electrons in the Earth's magnetosphere charge and lead to auroras and other effects across the globe. Such alterations further impact the navigation of animals and birds which use the magnetic field to find their way.

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"Our study suggests that fewer birds migrate during large geomagnetic storms. Our results also suggest that in certain conditions, birds that do migrate during geomagnetic storms may have more difficulty navigating, but we only found evidence for this pattern in fall migration and during high cloud cover, when birds might not be able to use celestial navigational cues," Winger said, Newsweek reported.

The research also discovered that birds did find it difficult to navigate during space weather events, especially when the weather conditions were overcast.

"Our study cannot specifically speak to birds getting lost as our methods (radar monitoring) do not allow us to track individual birds," Winger stated.

"However, a separate recent study from earlier this year found evidence that migratory birds likely do get lost in some of the same geomagnetic conditions affecting the birds in our dataset," he added.

(With inputs from agencies)

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