… diaporama: where the Blackbirds go, on Spiegel Online International, by Christoph Seidler, Oct 22, 2016 (Photo Gallery): there are 1.6 billion songbirds in Europe and half of them fly south for the winter. Scientists would like to follow them – using sensors attached to the International Space Station. But keeping up isn’t easy [VIDEO].
… Researchers believe that blackbirds migrate individually, but because of the astounding paucity of data, they aren’t even sure about that. Larger birds like albatrosses or geese can easily be outfitted with GPS transmitters. But blackbirds, which only weigh around 100 grams, aren’t able to carry heavy technical equipment. That is why Wikelski’s team is using lighter radio transmitters — and, if they can get their equipment to work, chasing them with cars … // Continuer la lecture de « Space Odyssey: A New Technology for Following Songbirds »