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The American Robin was among the birds affected by last year's total solar eclipse, which passed through Indiana.
American robin (71307)" by Rhododendrites is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0If you watched last year's total solar eclipse, you probably remember that for roughly four minutes, it felt like day had turned into night. Scientists from Indiana University have discovered many bird species felt the same.
Liz Aguilar is a PhD Student at IU and had the findings published recently in the academic journal Science. She said of the 52 bird species they detected, roughly 29 were affected by the eclipse, erupting in what researchers call a "dawn chorus" as the sun returned.
"We've known how important light is to behavior for a long time," Aguilar said. "Birds, just like us and all other animals, synchronize behaviors and daily rhythms based on sunlight."
But different birds had different reactions to the "false night" of the eclipse. Some birds, like the Barred owl and American robin, were active during the brief period of afternoon dark.
"I think [Barred owls] sang four or five times more than what they would normally do, which is just so cool," Aguilar said. "To hear owls, in the middle of the day, like that."
Other birds, like the Carolina chickadee, didn't really change their behaviors.
Researchers took a two-pronged approach in collecting data on the day of the eclipse. First, they created an app called SolarBird, which allowed citizen scientists from across the path of totality to record birds and the changes in behavior they might be observing.
About 1,700 people used the app during the eclipse, according to Aguilar, from Mexico all the way to Canada.
Researchers also used audio recording equipment to capture the sound of the eclipse. That audio was later analyzed with the help of artificial intelligence to help identify the different species of birds on tape.
Aguilar said the research could have implications for understanding how light pollution impacts different bird species. But what's stuck with her most is how many things had to come together to make the work possible.
"You know, so many things had to align for this to come together, not just the Sun and the Moon and the Earth, but the fact that, like we study birds at this university during this period and the peak of totality," Aguilar said.
Contact Health Reporter Benjamin Thorp at bthorp@wfyi.org
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