Nature Communications (Aug 2016)

Evidence that birds sleep in mid-flight

  • Niels C Rattenborg,
  • Bryson Voirin,
  • Sebastian M. Cruz,
  • Ryan Tisdale,
  • Giacomo Dell’Omo,
  • Hans-Peter Lipp,
  • Martin Wikelski,
  • Alexei L. Vyssotski

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12468
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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Whether and how birds sleep during long-distance flights has remained a mystery. Here, Rattenborg and colleagues show for the first time that frigatebirds can sleep during flight, but do so in remarkably small amounts.