Storm petrels follow crosswinds to find prey

NASA-funded researchers have learned that Mediterranean storm petrels actively seek stiff crosswinds because the gusts carry odors the birds use to navigate toward prey. The birds effectively trade the extra energy needed to fly in a crosswind for the information the wind blows toward them.

These sparrow-sized birds routinely undertake foraging trips hundreds of miles over the sea and return to the breeding colony to relieve their partners from incubation duties. Until recently, their small size made it difficult to tag them and kept their journeys a mystery.

Working on Sardinia in 2020 and 2021, a team from the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution attached lightweight GPS sensors that added just 3.3% of the birds’ weight. The work was published by the Royal Society’s Biology Letters on May 13.

Italy, Sardinia

storm petrels, mediterranean, crosswinds, odors, prey, foraging trips, gps sensors, sardinia, woods hole, biology letters