Rapid longitudinal flights cause time shifts and Sun compass error
Many animals use the Sun compass to guide their movement, sometimes over thousands of kilometers. Consistent use of the Sun compass relies on the endogenous clock to track the Sun’s arc, yet animals traveling east-west experience time shifts, potentially causing mismatches between their internal clock and local time. Using GPS, we reveal that Manx shearwaters ( Puffinus puffinus ) experience such shifts during homing flights, generating predictable errors in Sun compass orientation. Use of the Sun compass persists even when shearwaters have access to compass-independent cues during coast following. Our findings provide a new avenue for chronobiology research in the wild, suggesting that rapid longitudinal movements may affect other processes governed by the endogenous clock and that conserved chronobiological mechanisms impose substantial constraints on navigation.
Authors
- Annette L. Fayet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6373-0500)
- Craig Nisbet
- Stephanie M. Harris (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8580-9444)
- Holly L. Kirk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8724-3210)
- Patrick J. Lewin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2502-7264)
- Hector Bailey
- Joe Morford (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3687-1783)
- Paris Jaggers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3859-6909)
- Joe Wynn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5552-6435)
- Tim Guilford (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3447-8443)
- Oliver Padget (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5412-4306)
- Natasha Gillies (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9950-609X)
- Martyna Syposz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6148-039X)
- Akiko Shoji (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3364-7786)
- Katrina Siddiqi-Davies (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8965-7978)
- Ellie Owen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2073-2420)
- Sarah Bond
- Lou Maurice
- Lewis Lancaster-Reeves (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2009-0167)
- Madeline Davis
- Ben Dean
- Elizabeth Morgan
- Joe Parker
- Robin Freeman
Institutions
- Zoological Society of London (GB)
- British Geological Survey (GB)
- University of Liverpool (GB)
- Bangor University (GB)
- National Trust for Scotland (GB)
- Curtin University (AU)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- University of Gdańsk (PL)
- Institute of Avian Research (DE)
- Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NO)
- University of Rochester (US)
- Nagoya University (JP)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2026-10-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adz2542
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Avian ecology and behavior
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.47
Funders
- Leverhulme Trust
- Royal Society
- Narodowe Centrum Nauki
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
- Natural Environment Research Council
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science