{
  "id": 18198239,
  "title": "It's Not Just You: Some Fast-Flying Birds Also Get Jet Lag",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/04/its-not-just-you-some-fast-flying-birds-also-get-jet-lag",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-11-04T22:40:04.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Smithsonian",
    "slug": "smithsonian",
    "url": "https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/its-not-just-you-some-fast-flying-birds-also-get-jet-lag-180989811/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Manx shearwaters, medium-sized seabirds that spend most of their lives flying over the open ocean, may also experience jet lag, according to a new study published in the journal Science. The internal clocks of these birds can become out of sync with local time due to their rapid transoceanic flights. This jet lag-like time shift can confuse their sun-based compasses, causing them to become slightly disoriented and fly off course by up to 15 degrees. The birds, which regularly travel over 600 miles between their breeding grounds and foraging areas, rely on the sun as a compass to navigate. They use their internal clocks to help interpret the sun's position throughout the day, which changes as the Earth rotates. The study, led by ecologist Patrick Lewin at the University of Oxford, analyzed 20 years' worth of GPS tracking data from 1,045 wild breeding Manx shearwaters, focusing on their 1,837 eastward, homing flights. The data revealed that these birds veered clockwise in their flights, suggesting that jet lag contributes to their slight navigational errors. Although the impact on the birds' overall journeys is minimal, the researchers suggest that understanding this phenomenon could provide insights into how other long-distance travelers, including birds, bats, and insects, cope with jet lag.",
  "summary": "A new study finds that Manx shearwaters fly so fast that their internal clocks get out of sync with local time. These jet lag-like time shifts confuse their sun-based compasses, causing them to become a bit disoriented and fly slightly off course",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}