Tiny radio transmitters reveal a hidden survival tactic in birds

By Alice Barratt, PhD Candidate, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University
Christopher Turbill, Associate Professor, School of Science and the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University

In Sturt National Park, near Tibooburra in central Australia where temperatures can range from freezing to nearly 50°C, there lives a small bird with a white back, forked tail and – as we’ve just discovered – a very clever strategy to survive its extreme environment.

The white-backed swallow (Cheramoeca leucosterna) is a type of passerine – the largest group of birds, comprising 60% of all bird species.

Scientists have long thought these birds incapable of deep torpor – a controlled state of reduced body temperature that saves energy and has been found in many…

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