Storks refine their migration routes as they learn from experience

White storks take increasingly quicker and more direct routes for their migrations as they get older, which suggests they learn by experience to perfect these paths. "We've been able to track these animals and gain detailed information on when and where they go," says Ellen Aikens at the University of Wyoming. "But we wanted to learn more about how migration is refined and developed over the stork's lifetime." White storks (Ciconia ciconia) mostly breed in Europe, but fly to central or southern Africa for the winter. Between 2013 and 2020, Aikens and her colleagues captured 258 juvenile white storks at five breeding sites in Germany and Austria.