Songbirds Have In-Flight Conversations With Other Species During Migration, Study Shows [Video]

If you were a bird flying thousands of miles over land or sea with other migrating birds, what would you talk about to pass the time?

Songbirds may converse with other species during their long migrations, forming social bonds and possibly exchanging information about the flight, according to a new study led by researchers at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).

“The night sky teems with migrating songbirds, aloft in their millions following routes etched in evolutionary time. But those flight paths may not be entirely innate,” a press release from UIUC said.

The researchers analyzed data from more than 18,300 hours of calls recorded in-flight, which suggested songbirds might “talk” with migration mates.

“We can’t be sure what they’re saying, but birds might broadcast calls during flight to signal their species, age, and sex. And we can certainly speculate that these flight calls could relate to navigation or finding suitable stopover habitat,” said lead author …