Birds sensed imminent tornadoes, and escaped the day before, study finds

They may be tiny little songbirds, but U.S. researchers have discovered that golden-winged warblers are also keen weather predictors that know when to fly the coop when a dangerous storm is about to descend.

Writing in the journal Current Biology, the scientists say they made their finding by accident last April, as they were testing a new way to track the songbirds. Warblers weigh slightly more than a loonie and the researchers were trying out a new lightweight geolocator placed on the backs of 20 of the birds.

Nine of the birds kept the geolocators on as they migrated thousands of kilometres from South America to their breeding grounds in eastern Tennessee. But the researchers were puzzled when the geolocators revealed that the birds had suddenly taken a detour and headed back south.

About a day later, a huge supercell storm system moved in, spawning 84 tornadoes. In all, 35 people were killed in the devastating storms.
The evacuation saved the warblers, which were able to return to the breeding ground after the storm passed.


Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/birds-sensed-imminent-tornadoes-and-escaped-the-day-before-study-finds-1.2155508