{"id":2893,"date":"2020-07-16T16:05:09","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T16:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/?p=2893"},"modified":"2020-09-07T06:58:28","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T06:58:28","slug":"what-makes-the-birds-tick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/en\/animal_plants\/what-makes-the-birds-tick\/","title":{"rendered":"What makes the birds tick?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bird migration in Israel\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NvLWRuEXfIg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Among wildlife lovers, Israel is famous for its enormous bird migration, a spectacle that can be best witnessed around the Hula Valley in the north of Israel. Up to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kkl-jnf.org\/tourism-and-recreation\/forests-and-parks\/hula-lake-park.aspx\">500 million birds<\/a> of hundreds of different species cross through Israel on their long, arduous journey from Europe to Africa to spend the winter months in warmer climates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What is less known is that many of these birds are European forest birds who come to Israel to spend their resting days in forests around the country, before continuing their migration to the African continent. Now, for the first time, Israeli scientists, together with Keren Kayemet LeYisrael &#8211; the Jewish National Fund(KKL-JNF), are exploring the unknown link between migratory birds and different forest characteristics to find out what makes the large flocks prefer certain areas for a stopover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"681\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/6937281365_ff340427ef_o-1024x681.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2898\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/6937281365_ff340427ef_o-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/6937281365_ff340427ef_o-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/6937281365_ff340427ef_o-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/6937281365_ff340427ef_o-1536x1021.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/6937281365_ff340427ef_o-2048x1362.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption><em>Up to 500 million birds of hundreds of different species cross through Israel on their long, arduous journey from Europe to Africa to spend the winter months in warmer climates. Photo by Flavio~ on Flickr.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Finding\nthe Birds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat many\npeople don\u2019t know is that migratory birds have to rest every day in certain\nareas before they can continue their journey. Most migratory birds fly by night\nand rest during the day. The resting places have to meet certain requirements,\nsuch as water, food, and protection from predators,\u201d says Nir Sapir, Associate\nProfessor at the Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology at the\nUniversity of Haifa and head of the research project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen we\nare speaking about bird migration in Israel, we are speaking about a phenomenon\nthat involves several hundreds of millions of birds migrating each season &#8211; It\nis massive,\u201d says Sapir. It is like an invisible flowing river, which can be\nmade visible with the help of certain technologies, in our case radar,\u201d Sapir\ncontinues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For that\npurpose, Inbal Golstein-Schekler, a PhD student of Sapir who is leading the\nproject, is using weather radars that are able to cover an area in a radius of\n70 kilometers from each radar and instead of tracking individual birds, she uses\nthe data to quantify the birds as they depart in the evening from their staging\nsites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first\nperson to have done this kind of spatial analysis in the US is Jeffrey Buler\nfrom the University of Delaware, who is now, together with his technician\nJacklyn Smolinsky, helping JNF and the researchers to do the same study in\nIsrael.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According\nto Sapir, they know from different studies in the US that the birds select\ncertain areas that are more suitable for them. This varying density of birds\ncan inform us about the factors that make them select a specific resting place.\n\u201cFor example, the birds might select tall trees or very developed forests for\nresting, but avoid other open areas because they don\u2019t provide enough shelter\nor food,\u201d says Sapir. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nscientists are using data from three different metrological radars, which are\noperated by the Israeli Metrological Services and the Israel Air Force for\nweather forecasts \u2013 one in northern Israel, one in the center, and one in the\nsouth of the country. \u201cWe are using the raw data of these radars and run some\nalgorithms, to extract the spatial densities of these birds during the\nmigration season,\u201d says Sapir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is stage one \u2013 the mapping of the distribution of the birds,\u201c he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/492000256_f8b5e05073_o-1024x960.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2902\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/492000256_f8b5e05073_o-1024x960.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/492000256_f8b5e05073_o-300x281.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/492000256_f8b5e05073_o-768x720.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/492000256_f8b5e05073_o.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption><em>The scientists are using weather radars data to quantify the birds as they depart in the evening from their staging sites. Photo by Richie Leblang on Flickr.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>The Next\nStages<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After\nhaving analyzed and processed the data in the first stage of the project, the\nscientists are now at the beginning of the second stage. In this stage, the\nscientists are studying why the birds choose specific forests as resting places\nover other areas and try to match the data of the birds with habitat\nproperties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe use\ngeographic information in order to explore the correlation between areas with high\ndensity (a lot of birds) and the features of the land and the habitat,\u201d\nexplains Sapir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a later\nstage, the scientist will move from nighttime migratory birds to day-active\nbirds, which are mainly birds of prey and storks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese\nbirds usually fly in flocks, rest at night, and take off in the morning. But\nthe places where they rest, most likely also have certain characteristics,\u201d\nsays Sapir. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The scientist hopes that parts of the radar mappings first results will be available in several months, giving the scientists a better idea about the characteristics of the staging areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"681\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/2356814851_1aab4e6e01_o-1024x681.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2894\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/2356814851_1aab4e6e01_o-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/2356814851_1aab4e6e01_o-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/2356814851_1aab4e6e01_o-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/2356814851_1aab4e6e01_o-1536x1021.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/2356814851_1aab4e6e01_o-2048x1362.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption><em>Day-time migratory birds passing through Israel&#8217;s forests are mainly birds of prey and storks. Photo by  David King on Flickr.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>What\ncould be changed?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once the\nresearchers have gathered enough data about the migration patterns of the\nbirds, they hope to be able to give advice to KKL-JNF about how forest management efforts might positively affect the birds\u2019 resting\nbehavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe goal\nis to have a large-scale perspective on these two distinct groups of birds, the\nnocturnal (night-time) and the diurnal (day-time) birds, and to find out what\nthey are looking for. Afterward, we can provide recommendations to KKL-JNF on how to run and manage their forests in order to preserve, maintain or\neven improve the sites that are important to the birds in order to foster their\nmigration through Israel,\u201d Sapir explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According\nto Sapir, this can be done, for instance, by switching to other species of\ntrees, increasing or decreasing forest height, or adding more understory. There\nare many ways to change forest properties to make the sites more favorable for\nthe birds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFor\nexample, if we find out that the birds concentrate in a very small area of the\nforests, which is characterized by broadleaf trees, we can make the\nrecommendation to JNF to plant more broadleaves and fewer conifers in the\nfuture,\u201d says Sapir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the\nscientists don\u2019t have any preliminary findings yet, studies in the US have\nshown that migratory birds there prefer old-growth and developed forests.\nSurprisingly they seem to like city parks too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is\nanother aspect we would like to explore here in Israel. One of the radars is\nactually positioned not far from the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area, which gives us\nthe opportunity to find out if these birds are using city parks\ndisproportionally high as it has been described in the US,\u201d Sapir says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According\nto Sapir, the study\u2019s uniqueness stems not only from the fact that it is the\nfirst-of-its-kind in terms of scale, but also conducted across different\nclimates (Mediterranean and desert climate), which might have an additional\neffect on the resting patterns of the birds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe study\nis done across an environmental gradient; the north, which is mostly planted\nand natural forest; central Israel, which is densely populated and dominated by\nurban areas and agriculture, and the south, which is desert,\u201d says Sapir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cUltimately, we believe that the study will also contribute to the conservation of migratory birds in Israel. The resting time during migration is a very vulnerable time for these birds, during which they have to replenish their energy reserves. Therefore stopping in suitable conditions is critical to their survival,\u201d Sapir concludes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This ZAVIT article was also published in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ynetnews.com\/environment\/article\/SJQC00ZPkD\">Ynetnews&nbsp;<\/a>on 07\/11\/2020.<\/em><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Among wildlife lovers, Israel is famous for its enormous bird migration, a spectacle that can be best witnessed around the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":2920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"post-meta-fields":{"_edit_lock":["1599461908:11"],"_edit_last":["11"],"subtitle":["In a first-of-its-kind study, Israeli scientists, in collaboration with Keren Kayemet LeYisrael -the Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF), set out to discover what makes millions of migratory birds spend their resting hours in the forests throughout the country and to further support this important behavior of wild birds."],"_subtitle":["field_59d3d36ea7fe1"],"_wpml_media_duplicate":["1"],"_wpml_media_featured":["1"],"_oembed_abf4bcd8c3dd6f35c15a6b179aaa2fa7":["<iframe title=\"Bird migration in Israel\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NvLWRuEXfIg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>"],"_oembed_time_abf4bcd8c3dd6f35c15a6b179aaa2fa7":["1594910872"],"_thumbnail_id":["2920"]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2893"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3258,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893\/revisions\/3258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}