AM Radio Can Disorient Birds

Certain radio stations are bad for birds, according to a new study in Nature that finds AM radio signals disorient songbirds migrating at night.

AM Radio Can Disorient Birds. The study shows how even weak electromagnetic fields produced by AM radio signals can throw off a small animal — begging the question what are other electromagnetic fields doing to them, not to mention to the rest of us?

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Electronic pollution, or as the researchers call it, “electrosmog,” is a growing problem that is only expected to get worse as more of us plug or tune into radio stations, TVs, computers and countless other electrical devices. It’s a reminder that not all pollution is visible to us.

Biologist Henrik Mouritsen, a professor at the University of Oldenburg, and his colleagues determined that AM affects birds after studying European robins. These birds have an internal magnetic compass that helps them to find their way even when other cues, such as visual ones, are poor. At night, the internal magnetic compass is key to the birds finding their way.

Mouritsen and his team housed the birds in windowless huts. The researchers figured out a way to easily turn on and off the birds’ exposure to background urban electromagnetic signals.

With the electrosmog, the birds could not orient themselves properly. Without it, they were good to go.