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Light-colored feathers may help migrating birds stay cool on long flights

Images of more than 10,000 bird species reveal that farther fliers tend to have lighter feathers

image of a flock of white and black sanderling birds

A flock of sanderlings (Calidris alba) flies over open water. A new analysis of virtually all bird species suggests that migratory birds, like sanderlings, are on average lighter in color than non-migrators.

Pablo F. Petracci

By Jonathan Lambert

From teeny hummingbirds to giant whooping cranes, roughly half of the world’s more than 10,000 bird species migrate.