Scientists have studied bird migration for centuries, but it
remains one of nature's great mysteries. How do birds find their way over long
distances between breeding and wintering sites? Is their migration route
encoded in their genes, or is it learned?
Working with records from a long-term effort to reintroduce
critically endangered whooping cranes in the Eastern U.S., a University of
Maryland-led research team found evidence that these long-lived birds learn
their migration route from older cranes, and get better at it with age.