Evolutionary ecology of avian migration

Movement is fundamental to life in most organisms, achieved thanks to specialized behavioural and physiological adaptations included in the endogenous migration program for individual birds.

Global migrations are timed relative to varying environmental conditions set by geophysical cycles, regulated by internal clock mechanisms, and involve behavioural, physiological and endocrinological adaptations leading birds along highly diverse routes.

The underling sensory systems rely on celestial and geomagnetic information but how animals navigate at global scales remains a mystery. Especially challenging is navigation associated with longitude crossings and trans-hemispheric migrations.

I will investigate how birds have evolved to follow alternative routes, and if their behavioural, sensory, and physiological capacities expressed as migration phenotypes are adapted to species-specific routes.

I will use tracking technology to record routes and the hidden dimension of migration (flight altitude, stop-over length, timing of flights), radar, simulations, behavioural experiments, physiological and endocrinological sampling to investigate if birds can use global maps, what compass steer their flights and how migration performance improve with age.

I will investigate if compasses are calibrated, and how predation risk and competition affect migration.

The project is ground-breaking since it will elucidate how birds evolved to migrate across the globe by exploring geophysical information.