Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors cites Holberton, students in story on blackpoll warbler migration
Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors published a feature story in its November/December issue on University of Maine avian physiologist Rebecca Holberton’s research on the 2,000-mile autumn migration of the blackpoll warbler. Every fall, the birds make the 80-to-90-hour trip at 12,000 feet, from Maine to Venezuela, for the winter. “From mid-September until mid-October, blackpolls double their number of oxygen-rich red blood cells. It’s a strategy that enables them to efficiently metabolize fats at 12,000 feet where oxygen is limited,” Holberton noted in the magazine article.