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Insights into the Regulation of Spring Migration in Songbirds

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Biological Timekeeping: Clocks, Rhythms and Behaviour

Abstract

Migration in songbirds (order – Passeriformes) is a periodic movement between the breeding and overwintering grounds, located apart by several 1000 km. The migrating individuals face physiological challenges to cope with the demands imposed by long travels. The particularly important challenge is to meet energy cost of flight, in-flight supply of fuel, for which they need to store energy reserves in the form of fat. Long and uninterrupted migratory flight is facilitated by seasonal reduction in different organ weights and is made more efficient by enhancing the efficiency of metabolism, particularly the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle. Most diurnal birds migrate at night, and with this they undergo shifts from diurnal to nocturnal patterns both in their behavioral and neural activities. Several of these seasonal alterations are under the circadian clock. In this chapter, our focus is on the brief mechanistic explanation for physiological, behavioral, biochemical, and molecular changes that occur during transition from the nonmigratory to migratory state in songbirds.

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Acknowledgments

Financial assistance from the Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi (BT/PR4984/MED/30/752/2012) was utilized in the preparation of this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, 226007, India

    Sangeeta Rani & Shalie Malik

  2. Department of Zoology, NSN (PG) College, Lucknow, 226001, India

    Sudhi Singh

  3. Department of Zoology, University of Delhi, Delhi, 110007, India

    Vinod Kumar

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  1. Sangeeta Rani
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  2. Sudhi Singh
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Correspondence to Sangeeta Rani .

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  1. Department of Zoology, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

    Vinod Kumar

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Rani, S., Singh, S., Malik, S., Kumar, V. (2017). Insights into the Regulation of Spring Migration in Songbirds. In: Kumar, V. (eds) Biological Timekeeping: Clocks, Rhythms and Behaviour. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-3688-7_30

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