You might think birds skimming over the ocean wouldn’t seek wind unless it was pushing them in the right direction, but NASA-funded researchers have learned that storm petrels find stiff crosswinds worth the slowdown, in return for the clues and cues the gusts carry.

In a paper published by the Royal Society’s Biology Letters May 13, researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) found that Mediterranean storm petrels actively sought out crosswinds, which carried odors the birds used to navigate toward prey. The birds were effectively trading the extra energy needed to fly in a crosswind for the information it blows toward them.

These sparrow-sized birds routinely undertake foraging trips hundreds of miles over the sea, returning to the breeding colony to relieve their partners from incubation duties. Until recently, their small size has precluded researchers’ ability to tag them, keeping their journeys a mystery. In 2020 and 2021, working on the Italian island Sardinia, the team, led by ISPRA and WHOI, attached lightweight GPS sensors to the birds, adding just 3.3% of the birds’ weight as they set out over the Mediterranean Sea.

This finding could help reveal how changing winds might impact seabirds’ feeding, breeding, energy levels, and survival, adding insights about patterns of nutrients in the sea — and the forces that create them.

~Karen Romano Young