iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Fengyi Guo (Freda) @fyguo.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Very excited and honored to receive this year’s James G. Cooper Award! Looking forward to connecting with the great community at #AOS26!

1111

Reposted by Fengyi Guo (Freda)

Jeff Buler @jbuler.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Think all barriers for migrating birds are natural like deserts and seas? Not so! I helped discover that the man-made Corn Belt is also a barrier to migration for many birds. Check out more about my study here...

news.cornell.edu

America's Corn Belt acts as barrier for migrating songbirds | Cornell Chronicle

The vast agricultural landscape of the U.S. Midwest known as the Corn Belt acts as a barrier for migrating landbirds, causing them to adjust their flight behaviors similar to when crossing natural bar...

084

Fengyi Guo (Freda) @fyguo.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Grateful to collaborate with an amazing team on this work. @jbuler.bsky.social, Adriaan Dokter, @kyle-horton.bsky.social, @emlbcohen.bsky.social, Dan Sheldon, Jaclyn Smolinsky, and David Wilcove.

152

Fengyi Guo (Freda) @fyguo.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

8. What can we do to help? #BirdConservation 🌳 Restore small forest patches across the Corn Belt to provide more stopover sites. 🏞️ Protect Gulf Coast woodlands, a vital landing zone for birds crossing natural barriers like the Gulf of Mexico.

120

Fengyi Guo (Freda) @fyguo.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

7. Birds crossing the Corn Belt are more likely to stop over as they approach the “finish line” of barrier crossing. The scattered forest patches within the Corn Belt also appear to serve as important “stepping stones” where birds can stop to rest and refuel. #Conservation

110

Fengyi Guo (Freda) @fyguo.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

6. Most birds stop to rest immediately after crossing the Gulf of Mexico, as you'd expect for such a taxing journey. But the Corn Belt? The stopover response was weaker. However, we found some telling patterns during crossing. Read on 👇

110

Fengyi Guo (Freda) @fyguo.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

5. Stopover Behaviors: We computed the proportion of birds stopping over relative to the number of birds flying by (stopover-to-passage ratio, SPR) to compare the impacts of the Gulf of Mexico and the Corn Belt.

120

Fengyi Guo (Freda) @fyguo.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

4. Flight Behaviors: Birds fly faster (higher airspeeds) and are more selective about flying with tailwinds over the Corn Belt compared to more forested landscapes. This is similar to their strategies for crossing natural barriers like the Gulf of Mexico.

121

Fengyi Guo (Freda) @fyguo.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

3. Using 5 years of data from 47 weather radar stations, we compared how birds adjust their flight and stopover behaviors when crossing the Corn Belt vs. forested landscapes to the south (Eastern Forest) and north (Northern Forest) of it.

110

Fengyi Guo (Freda) @fyguo.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

2. Over 76% of the original forests & grasslands in the Corn Belt have been converted primarily to cornfields, creating an anthropogenic barrier to migrating songbirds in North America.

110

Fengyi Guo (Freda) @fyguo.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

1. Did you know that the Corn Belt in the Midwest USA is so vast you can see it from space? 🌽 How would this affect billions of migrating songbirds passing through each year? 🐦 Check out our new study in @conbiology.bsky.social to find out! 🧵1/8 conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

12216

Reposted by Fengyi Guo (Freda)

Cecilia Nilsson @cnilsson.science · 05/03/2025

Weather radars continuously register the movements of billions of animals in the air! We have now published datasets covering large parts of Europe, providing an overview of the aerial habitat in a way no other method can. Data is available on Alofdata.eu , see our blogpost: go.nature.com/3F0wQ0L

go.nature.com

European data on animals aloft now publicly available

Weather radars detect more than weather, they also continuously register the movements of billions of animals (birds, bats, insects) in the air. Those data are now publicly available for large parts o...

212261

Fengyi Guo (Freda) @fyguo.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Excited to share my radar aeroecology research on the stopover ecology and conservation of migrating songbirds with @ctaudubon.bsky.social community tonight at 7pm EST!

010