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http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30531060
A group of golden-winged warblers which were being tracked by researchers had just settled into their Appalachian nesting area after a 5,000 kilometer migration from Columbia when the huge tornado outbreak hit last April.
Only they weren't there any more. The tracking showed they had all split, probably for the Gulf of Mexico, 700 kilometers away, one or two days before the tornadoes hit their area.
Within a few days they were back at their nesting site. The trackers showed they had flown at least 1500 kilometers over those few days.
Tornadoes make extremely low frequency noises that birds can hear at great distances. When the warblers left Appalachia the local weather was clear and the nearest tornado was hundreds of miles away, but they seem to have detected the size of the oncoming weather and flown a remarkable distance to avoid it.
A group of golden-winged warblers which were being tracked by researchers had just settled into their Appalachian nesting area after a 5,000 kilometer migration from Columbia when the huge tornado outbreak hit last April.
Only they weren't there any more. The tracking showed they had all split, probably for the Gulf of Mexico, 700 kilometers away, one or two days before the tornadoes hit their area.
Within a few days they were back at their nesting site. The trackers showed they had flown at least 1500 kilometers over those few days.
Tornadoes make extremely low frequency noises that birds can hear at great distances. When the warblers left Appalachia the local weather was clear and the nearest tornado was hundreds of miles away, but they seem to have detected the size of the oncoming weather and flown a remarkable distance to avoid it.
The new study is the first time that migratory birds have been seen taking such dramatic evasive action.
"We know that birds can alter their route to avoid things during regular migration," Dr Streby explained. "But it hadn't been shown until our study that they would leave once the migration is over, and they'd established their breeding territory, to escape severe weather."