Data from: Atmospheric conditions create freeways, detours and tailbacks for migrating birds

The extraordinary adaptations of birds to contend with atmospheric conditions during their migratory flights have captivated ecologists for decades. During the 21st century technological advances have sparked a revival of research into the influence of weather on migrating birds. Using biologging technology, flight behaviour is measured across entire flyways, weather radar networks quantify large-scale migratory fluxes, citizen scientists gather observations of migrant birds and mechanistic models are used to simulate migration in dynamic aerial environments. In this review, we first introduce the most relevant microscale, mesoscale and synoptic scale atmospheric phenomena from the point of view of a migrating bird. We then provide an overview of the individual responses of migrant birds (when, where and how to fly) in relation to these phenomena. We explore the cumulative impact of individual responses to weather during migration, and the consequences thereof for populations and migratory systems. In general, individual birds seem to have a much more flexible response to weather than previously thought, but we also note similarities in migratory behaviour across taxa. We propose various avenues for future research through which we expect to derive more fundamental insights into the influence of weather on the evolution of migratory behaviour and the life-history, population dynamics and species distributions of migrant birds.

数十年来，鸟类为应对迁徙飞行中的大气条件演化出的非凡适应策略一直吸引着生态学家的关注。进入21世纪后，技术进步推动了气象对迁徙鸟类影响相关研究的复兴。借助生物记录（biologging）技术，研究人员可在整条鸟类迁徙通道上监测飞行行为；利用气象雷达网络可量化大规模迁徙通量；公民科学家则收集迁徙鸟类的观测数据，同时通过机制模型模拟动态空中环境下的迁徙过程。在本综述中，我们首先从迁徙鸟类的视角介绍与之最相关的微尺度、中尺度与天气尺度大气现象。随后我们概述迁徙鸟类针对这些大气现象所做出的个体响应——包括飞行的时机、地点与方式。我们还探讨了迁徙过程中个体对气象条件的响应所产生的累积效应，及其对种群与迁徙系统的影响。总体而言，相较于此前的认知，单个鸟类对气象条件的响应似乎更为灵活，但我们也发现不同类群鸟类的迁徙行为存在共性。我们提出了若干未来研究方向，期望通过这些研究更深入地揭示气象条件对迁徙行为演化，以及迁徙鸟类的生活史、种群动态与物种分布的影响。