This is Bird Note.

The whirling, flute-like song of the Viri rings through the trees of the northern United States and southern Canada during its summer breeding season.

These tawny-colored thrushes raise only one brood of chicks each year, and they'll try as many times as it

takes to successfully fledge offspring. Except that in some years, the Veres cut their breeding season

short. Birds that still haven't raised chicks give up on breeding altogether. But why?

With some clever data sleuthing, researchers discovered that VIRES tend to stop breeding early in the same years that the Atlantic hurricane season is particularly severe.

Instead, they prepare for their fall migration over the Gulf of Mexico to the Amazon region of South America.

In fact, Vuries are sometimes better at predicting hurricane conditions than computer models.

And that's particularly intriguing to scientists because the birds seem to forecast storms

months in advance. It's still a mystery how these songbirds became such incredible meteorologists.

As climate change increases the number and intensity of Atlantic hurricanes, many songbirds

like the Vary could suffer the consequences.

Not only do they have less time to breed, but their safety is compromised as they're

forced to fly through

fierce tempests during fall migration season.

To learn more about what you can do to support migratory birds at home, start at our website,

birdnote.org. I'm Ariana Rimmel.