Aeroecology focuses on how airborne life interacts with the atmosphere. Until recently, most bird research in the field focused on how weather affects seasonal migration patterns.

Now a study on California condors has revealed fundamental new insights into the lives of these critically endangered birds.

In a giant computer model, researchers divided California and Oregon into 94 million pixels. They then compared GPS locations of condors with data from each pixel on the position of thermals, air deflected upwards by mountains, land cover, terrain roughness and geographic coordinates.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, they found condors mostly go where there are rising air currents. Locations with good thermals are favored in summer, while terrain-related updrafts are important year-round

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