Social associations across species during nocturnal bird migration

An emerging frontier in ecology explores how organisms integrate social information into movement behavior and the extent to which information exchange occurs across species boundaries.^1,2,3 Most migratory landbirds are thought to undertake nocturnal migratory flights independently, guided by endogenous programs and individual experience.^4,5 Little research has addressed the potential for social information exchange aloft during nocturnal migration, but social influences that aid navigation, orientation, or survival could be valuable during high-risk migration periods.^1,2,6,7,8 We captured audio of >18,000 h of nocturnal bird migration and used deep learning to extract >175,000 in-flight vocalizations of 27 species of North American landbirds.^9,10,11,12 We used vocalizations to test whether migrating birds distribute non-randomly relative to other species in flight, accounting for migration phenology, geography, and other non-social factors. We found that migrants engaged in distinct associations with an average of 2.7 ± 1.9 SD other species. Social associations were stronger among species with similar wing morphologies and vocalizations. These results suggest that vocal signals maintain in-flight associations that are structured by flight speed and behavior.^11,13,14 For small-bodied and short-lived bird species, transient social associations could play an important role in migratory decision-making by supplementing endogenous or experiential information sources.^15,16,17 This research provides the first quantitative evidence of interspecific social associations during nocturnal bird migration, supporting recent calls to rethink songbird migration with a social lens.² Substantial recent declines in bird populations^18,19 may diminish the frequency and strength of social associations during migration, with currently unknown consequences for populations.