Birds' feathers reveal their winter diet
Wednesday, June 21, 2017 - 08:51
in Biology & Nature
Influences outside the breeding season matter a lot for the population health of migratory birds, but it's tough to track what happens once species scatter for the winter. A study now tries a new approach for determining what birds called bobolinks eat after they head south for the winter -- analyzing the carbon compounds in their plumage, which are determined by the types of plants the birds consume during their winter molt.