Weather radar tracks birds at night.

• Position: Avian Migration - Brief article

Using the nation's weather radar network, two doctoral students at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, have developed a technique for forecasting something other than the weather: the orientation behavior of birds as they migrate through the atmosphere at night.

Phillip M. Stepanian, a meteorology and electrical engineering student, and Kyle G. Horton, a biology student, have discovered a way to use the latest dual-polarization radar upgrade to measure broad-scale flight orientation of nocturnal migrant birds--a promising development for biologists and bird enthusiasts.

"This is an important advance because...