When the moon's shadow sweeps across Europe today (August 12, 2026), parts of Spain, Portugal, Iceland and Greenland will be thrust into total darkness during the first total solar eclipse there since 1999.
How will birds react to this rather sudden onset of darkness?
Haikubox founder David A. Mann, PhD spoke with The Planetary Society about how birds responded during the total solar eclipse in North America in 2024, and what it might mean for today's eclipse. The story aired on the Planetary Radio podcast.
David noted that European birds may respond with a shrug of their feathery shoulders.
A team — including Haikubox researchers and scientists from the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics (CCB) at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology — used Haikubox data (yay, community science!) to eavesdrop on how birds across North America reacted to the April 2024 total eclipse, carefully filtering out any site where excited human crowds might have muddied results.
Statistical analysis showed a clear, broad drop in bird vocalizations only at locations experiencing more than 99% obscuration — essentially at or very near totality — and only briefly, in the minutes around and just after peak darkness. Sites with a partial eclipse showed no consistent change, which makes sense given that a 95%-covered sun still leaves things about as bright as an overcast day.
Even then, the response was far from universal — in 2024 some birds sang right through the dark while others nearby went quiet, and the birds' reactions varied from one Haikubox to the next.
One factor worth noting is the season. The 2024 eclipse occurred in early April, before the breeding and migration season was in full swing; today's eclipse lands in summer, so the birds along the path may respond differently than the North American birds did.