The Genius of Birds

by Jennifer Ackerman

It was April 2014, and researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, were testing whether a population of tiny golden-winged warblers breeding in the Cumberland Mountains of eastern Tennessee could carry geolocators on their backs. The birds had arrived only in the past day or two after a 3,000-mile journey north from their wintering grounds in Colombia. The team had just attached the gizmos to the tiny warblers when all the birds suddenly flew the coop, spontaneously evacuating their nesting grounds. The scientists later learned that a huge “supercell” spring storm was headed their way, one that would spawn eighty-four tornadoes and kill thirty-five people. The warblers left twenty-four hours before the devastating storm hit and flew in all directions, some as far south as Cuba. After the storm passed, they flew straight back to their nesting site—for some, a round-trip of almost 1,000 miles. The scientists conducting the study suggest that the birds may have been warned by the deep rumble of the superstorm when it was still 250 to 500 miles away, picking up on the strong low-frequency infrasounds generated by such tornadic storms. These can travel for hundreds to thousands of miles but are inaudible to humans.

A bit like mammals’ ability to detect pending earthquakes several hours before the quakes actually hit.