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ScienceQuiet 6d · day 10

Study finds Manx shearwaters get jet lag on fast transatlantic flights

Oxford-led research shows the seabirds' body clocks can desync from local time, causing them to veer off course by using a sun compass with the wrong internal time.

newest coverage 5d agosummary written 10d ago46 pieces33 likes & upvotes2 comments NewswiresGoogle NewsMastodonRedditHacker NewsBluesky

What to know

  • A Science study shows Manx shearwaters' internal clocks can desync from local time by over an hour during fast transatlantic flights, mirroring human jet lag.
  • The birds navigate using a sun compass rather than Earth's magnetic field, so a mistimed internal clock causes predictable clockwise navigational drift on rapid eastward flights.
  • The effect is small in practice — roughly an extra 5 km of flight after a 1,000 km trip — which may explain why the birds haven't evolved a way to avoid it.
  • Researchers believe other fast-traveling animals, including some insects and bats, could experience similar clock-based navigation errors.

“We've slightly shied away from using the term jet lag itself, because people associate that with the health impacts of that clock shift, rather than the clock shift itself. But it's exactly the same process that causes jet lag in people.”

Patrick Lewin, University of Oxford researcher · New Scientist ↗ · Oct 28

Patrick Lewin Researcher, University of OxfordUniversity of Oxford research team Study authors

Study finds Manx shearwaters get jet lag on fast transatlantic flights
New Scientist

How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlesposts

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  1. 1

    Researchers suggest other fast fliers may also experience jet lag

    Lewin says it is likely that other long-distance travelers, possibly including some insects and bats as well as birds, experience the same clock-shift effect, though for shearwaters the resulting detour (about 5 km extra after a 1,000 km flight) is likely negligible.

    1. 12 outlets Birds can get jet lag on long, fast flights and then fly off course

      first by New Scientist, 10d ago · also Science News, The Washington Post, NPR, Buffalo Toronto Public Media, KANW, Ocean State Media +5

      6 more headlines
    • gull.us

      This is an interesting story, and I actually wonder if evolution might have accidentally created a version of "aiming off" here.

      gull.usBluesky4d ago1▲view on Bluesky ↗
    2 more of the top 3 · 7 posts in this stretch
    • ScienceDesk@flipboard.social

      Ever wish you were a bird, free of the frailties of the human condition? Turns out some of our feathered friends have something in common with human travelers: jet lag. A recent study found that the Manx shearwater appears to become slightly disoriented during long flights across the Atlantic Ocean. Read more from @ npr : https:// flip.it/89bEf9 #…

      ScienceDesk@flipboard.socialMastodon8d agoview on Mastodon ↗
    • gltch.io

      Manx shearwaters experience jet lag when flying across time zones in the North Atlantic. This disrupts their internal clocks and skews the compass they use to navigate by the sun. Source: arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/… #Science

      gltch.ioBluesky8d agoview on Bluesky ↗
    all of them →
  2. background

    Researchers rule out magnetic sense, confirm sun-compass navigation — The team attached magnets to shearwaters to disrupt any geomagnetic navigation, finding no effect, and instead showed the birds rely on a sun compass that requires an accurate internal clock to maintain direction.

  3. background

    Oxford-led study documents jet lag in Manx shearwaters — Researchers analyzed nearly 4,000 GPS-tracked foraging flights and found that Manx shearwaters making rapid eastward return flights across the Atlantic veer clockwise off their direct course, consistent with their internal clocks lagging local time by more than an hour.

Also covered reported alongside — the timeline has no entry for these yet

  1. 3 outlets Long-distance flights can throw seabirds' internal clocks out of sync, causing navigation errors

    first by Phys.org, 10d ago · also Japan Times, Channel News Asia

    1 more headline
  2. 3 outlets Seabirds can get jetlag too

    first by ZSL, 10d ago · also Ars Science, Ars Technica

    1 more headline

and 1 smaller piece

What people are saying 1 voices from 1 site · best of 7 · verbatim