Am I crazy? This doesn't actually say anything about their guidance system? Just that its "genetic"?
> In a groundbreaking new study published in the journal Science, researchers have found that a combination of genetics and environment determines where migratory birds fly to for the winter.
Yeah, the discovery seems more to me that some kind of genetic/biological guidance system must exist, because otherwise the observations would be hard to explain - but it doesn't tell how that guidance system works (though I'd really like to know now...)
I guess the "guidance system" is not located in any organ or individual bird, but as a kind of accumulated collective knowledge. Perhaps the term was misleading, since it's a metaphor relating to a mechanism in individual airplane, rocket, etc. Anyway, fascinating to learn more about these lovely creatures.
A gps logger would likely be too heavy. The birds themselves only weigh 12 grams.
You can derive latitude from the length of the day. You can derive longitude from the offset of dawn/dusk. It won't be nearly as accurate as gps of course, but accuracy to a degree or two is really all you need.
> In a groundbreaking new study published in the journal Science, researchers have found that a combination of genetics and environment determines where migratory birds fly to for the winter.
No GPS?
You can derive latitude from the length of the day. You can derive longitude from the offset of dawn/dusk. It won't be nearly as accurate as gps of course, but accuracy to a degree or two is really all you need.