Shearwater infographic (IMAGE)
Caption
Infographic showing clock-shift that occurs during homing flights of shearwaters. The bird begins to home at point A. On the first day of homing, its endogenous clock is calibrated to local time at 30°W. However, the shearwater travels eastwards to 15°W over 6 hours to point B. Here, sunrise happened an hour earlier, so the shearwater’s perceived time lags local time by an hour and the sun is roughly 20° further clockwise than the shearwater expects. At point B, this discrepancy causes the shearwater to orient roughly 20° clockwise of the correct direction. Credit: Lewin et al, 2026.
Credit
Lewin et al, 2026.
Usage Restrictions
These images are for editorial purposes relating to this press release ONLY and MUST be credited. They MUST NOT be sold on to third parties or uploaded to image databases without permission.
License
Original content