Figures
Migratory jet-lag.
White-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii) follow the migratory route indicated by the yellow arrow along the coast of North America. How these and other song birds sleep during their long journeys, which occur mostly at night, has remained a mystery. Benca and colleagues demonstrate that white-crowned sparrows greatly reduce sleep time during the migratory season, without experiencing deficits in cognitive performance. (See Rattenborg et al.)
Historically, migratory flights, which occur at night when songbirds are normally sleeping, have been studied by counting birds that can be seen crossing the face of the moon (click here to see animation - 1.8MB AVI, 1.6MB MOV, or 1.6MB RV).
Image Credit: Cover image and animation created by Pigorsch Media Design, Inc., using a photograph by Russell C. Hansen
Citation: (2004) PLoS Biology Issue Image | Vol. 2(7) July 2004. PLoS Biol 2(7): ev02.i07. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pbio.v02.i07
Published: July 27, 2004
Copyright: © 2004 Pigorsch Media Design Inc, Hansen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
White-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii) follow the migratory route indicated by the yellow arrow along the coast of North America. How these and other song birds sleep during their long journeys, which occur mostly at night, has remained a mystery. Benca and colleagues demonstrate that white-crowned sparrows greatly reduce sleep time during the migratory season, without experiencing deficits in cognitive performance. (See Rattenborg et al.)
Historically, migratory flights, which occur at night when songbirds are normally sleeping, have been studied by counting birds that can be seen crossing the face of the moon (click here to see animation - 1.8MB AVI, 1.6MB MOV, or 1.6MB RV).
Image Credit: Cover image and animation created by Pigorsch Media Design, Inc., using a photograph by Russell C. Hansen