When it comes to global warming, the canary in the coal mine isn't a canary at all. It's a purple finch.
As the temperature across the U.S. has gotten warmer, the purple finch has been spending its winters more than 400 miles farther north than it used to. Read More...
Many migratory birds are now missing out on vital foods as trees are bearing fruit earlier than the scheduled time due to global warming widely blamed by scientists on emissions from burning fossil fuels.
Echoing a fear over the diminishing numbers of birds due to this imbalance, Indian ornithologist Satish Pandey said, an imbalance was creeping in the cycle of arrival of migratory birds and availability of food to them. Read More...
Parakeets were first reported in the wild in England in small numbers in 1969 and are thought to have become established because of persistent escapes or releases of pets.
The BTO counted 1,500 in 1996. A further study estimated numbers exceeded 6,000 in 2002.
John Tayleur, of the BTO, said the species is thriving in warmer temperatures brought by climate change and could now be up to a record 20,000. Read More...
Just seven years ago, climate change wasn’t listed as a potential hazard in Threatened Birds of the World. Now it gets its own heading in the annual book, and with good reason: a new study finds that climate change may trigger the extinction of 30 percent of land bird species by the year 2100.
February 2008. Four Avocets have returned to the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust’s reserve at Martin Mere in the UK at least three weeks earlier that usual, making this the earliest record in Lancashire of a returning group of summer wading birds for breeding.
This is also yet another clear indicator that climate change is affecting the migration patterns of birds.
Global warming could threaten dependency on local coastal habitat
Though perhaps not as dramatic as polar bears drowning in rising Arctic seas and melting ice, the perils of a little sparrow that depends on the salt marshes of southeastern Connecticut for nesting could be a local indicator of the effects of global warming.
"This could be the first Connecticut species to go extinct if sea levels continue to rise as they are,” said Milan Bull, senior director of science and conservation at the Audubon Society. “With global warming and sea-level rise increasing, our coastal salt marshes are at great risk, very great risk." Read More...
While these redstarts appear to be thriving today, the research team says their findings point to the need to consider conservation measures in the winter habitat.
"The models predict increasing drought in the Caribbean," says Studds. "Rain is very important to these birds. If their winter habitat gets drier and their departure dates get later, populations in southern areas could see big declines." Read More...
This is a low-key, friendly bit of birding rivalry that is not especially original but which seems appropriate in these days of carbon emissions and climate change. If you have ever felt even a tiny bit guilty about driving or flying to see a good bird (or several) why not join us in a year of carbon-neutral birding? Read More...
By 2100, climate change could cause up to 30 percent of land-bird species to go extinct worldwide, if the worst-case scenario comes to pass. read more...
According to Steve Williams, if temperatures continue to rise in the Australian cloudforests, the bowerbirds and many other species will be threatened with extinction. Read More...Photo courtesy of www.cassowarytours.com.au
Rising sea temperatures are driving increasing numbers of Europe’s most endangered seabird into UK waters. Around ten per cent of the world population of Balearic shearwaters has visited UK inshore waters this summer and autumn, with more than 1,200 birds being recorded from just one watchpoint near Land’s End in Cornwall. read more...
Climate change may not be noticeable to all humans yet, but the behaviour of birds suggests the seasons have already changed.
A researcher at the weather bureau has found that some spring migrating birds are arriving many days earlier than they used to.
Another critically endangered species has adapted its breeding cycle in response to climate change. Read More...
Every autumn since 1983, an annual ritual on what birders call "Hawk Hill", in the Marin Headlands, takes place.
They point binoculars and scopes to take a census of nineteen species, roughly 40,000 birds a year.
The birds have flown this route long before the Army was here, or people.
In fact, their patterns trace back to the last ice age.
Now, as the climate changes again, Allen Fish of the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory wonders how it affects these creatures at the top of the food chain.
This year, they'll look closely at the rough legged hawk, which travels all the way from the arctic.
The numbers show that in the past twenty-five years.
The rough legged hawk has arrived five days later, which may not sound like much.
"It might be a statistical blip or a trend with serious implications because nature is interconnected.
"We're talking about is a potential to desynchronize a huge range of biological events," said Allen Fish, Golden Gate Raptor Observatory. Read More...
Dr Mark Avery, the RSPB's conservation director, said tackling climate change is hugely important, but that it can be done "without destroying irreplaceable national treasures like the Severn estuary".
"The government should be aiming to help [and] not destroy wildlife, and that applies to proposals for green energy schemes just as much as new supermarkets or housing estates," he added. read more...
According to an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, several ornithological researchers suspect global warming is leading to changes in bird behavior, namely in regards to bird distribution, population and migratory patterns.
The American Bird Conservancy predicts doom for more than half of the migrating species in the Great Lakes region if warming continues at its current pace from a report issued in its publication titled "A Birdwatcher's Guide to Global Warming."
Here is just a sampling of some of the behavioral changes that are being noticed in the Midwest.......
--The Northern Mockingbird, more of a southern bird, has expanded far into the upper Midwest.
--Mississippi Kites nested in southern Ohio recently, which is the farthest north ever recorded.
--Cerulean Warbler population is down 70% over the past 25 years.
--Orioles and Black-Capped Chickadees are becoming much more common in northern areas, while diminishing on the southern end of their normal range. read more...
For Lake Erie birders, this prediction sounds, well, a little eerie.
John Pogacnik, a naturalist with the Lake Metroparks says the kinds and numbers of birds in the area have changed dramatically over the past decade.
During the Christmas Bird Count at Kelleys Island last year, Pogacnik counted more than 100 hermit thrush where there had never been more than a handful before.
The Ohio Division of Wildlife says birds are following the bugs, which are relocating as temperatures rise. read more...
Consider other avian changes in Ohio:
Northern mockingbirds - those rowdy mimics of the south - have expanded far into the upper Midwest and are abundant in the briars at Whiskey Island on Cleveland's lakefront.
A pair of Mississippi kites - sleek, gray raptors common in the Deep South - nested and fledged a chick this past summer on a golf course in Hocking County in southern Ohio. It marked the farthest north the kites had ever nested and the first time on record in Ohio. read more...
Professor Garnett in his research, the history of threatened birds in Australia and its offshore islands, listed disturbing predictions that 45 Australian bird species were threatened to some degree by increase in temperature by 2050.
The impact of climate change was now starting to show an impact on numbers, said Professor Garnett.
The fairy tern has disappeared from South Australia because of the salinity killing of the fish they feed on and the mismanagement of river flows that destroys their nests. read more...
A rare game bird which recently made a comeback in Wales could be wiped out by climate change in just 20 years, according to a new report.
Black grouse numbers dropped to 131 active males in 1997, but rose to 247 by 2005.
But the species faces extinction in Wales if global warming continues at the current rate, research suggests.
Read More...
Birds, whales and other migratory creatures are suffering from global warming that puts them in the wrong place at the wrong time, a U.N. official told 166-nation climate talks on Monday. Read More...
Birds have long been used as indicators of the state of the world’s ecosystems, providing insights into habitat loss, deterioration, and pollution. Now a new project, starting this month, will add climate change to the list. Read More...
Connecticut is home to as many as 20 percent of the world's population of saltmarsh sharp-tailed sparrows, but climate change is endangering their way of life, according to researchers.
The birds have traditionally thrived in the privacy offered by dense saltmarsh grass, but in light of rising sea levels caused by climate change, high tide is more frequently destroying their nests and washing them out to sea, researchers and environmentalists said. Read More...
Evidence suggests that rising average temperatures could allow mosquitoes to survive at higher, elevations, exposing the birds to deadly diseases. Researchers for the U.S. Geological Survey conclude that even a small increase in temperatures in Hawaii's forests will eliminate much of the mosquito-free safe zone that once existed for Kauai's birds. Read More...
And the population could rise even more. Unusually warm temperatures in the birds' breeding habitat on Wrangel Island, in the Russian Arctic, have led to more chicks hatching and surviving.
Davison said the island's warm temperatures may be a result of global warming. If so, conditions could grow still milder and bring yet more geese.
Read More...
Scientists are taking the unorthodox step of using king penguins to help determine the true extent of climate change.
The University of Birmingham says that mapping the behaviour of the Antarctic birds to better understand global warming is the reverse of the standard practice of measuring the effects of climate change upon fish patterns or avian migration.
Read More...
West Coast seabirds are dying, apparently from a lack of food -- and some researchers think the phenomenon may be linked to global climate change.
This is the third year that scientists have found unusually large numbers of marine birds -- mainly common murres, but also rhinoceros auklets and tufted puffins -- washed up on beaches in California, Oregon and Washington. In 2005, the first year of the phenomenon, large numbers of Cassin's auklets also died. ...
Sydeman said the anomalies could be linked to global climate change.
"What's clear is that during the past decade, there's much more variability out there than there was during the preceding 40 years," he said.
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Instead, Glue believes that the main reason why the cuckoo is in crisis is to be found not in the UK but thousands of miles away in Africa. "We know that the cuckoo overwinters in East Africa, which is increasingly being hit by drought as a result of climate change and which is making conditions very difficult for both wildlife and people in the region," he says.
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Birds are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the changing British climate, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has warned.
Milder winters and cold snaps are affecting feeding routines and altering migratory patterns.
As a result, the number of birds counted by participants in January's Big Garden Birdwatch was down, with some breeds hitting a five-year low.
Read More...
Batt said climate change is throwing the bird world out of whack. Like the canvasbacks, which are wintering farther north, mallards that once spent the cold months in Mississippi and Arkansas are instead spending the season in Missouri and Kansas. The blue-winged teal, which typically rides out the winter in Cuba and South America, has switched locales to Louisiana and Texas.
"Climate change is the story," Batt said. "Nobody knows how this is all going to shake out in the long run, and each species is a little different."
Read More...
More bird species in the United States are ranging farther north and even staying there for the winter in a possible sign of adaptation to global warming, ornithologists and conservation groups say.
Some indicators come from the recent Great Backyard Bird Count, which found more swallows, orioles and other common birds in uncommon locations.
"We've got Baltimore orioles in 14 states, orchard orioles in five different reports and Scott's oriole in Pennsylvania. They shouldn't be here. They should be way south," says Paul Green of the National Audubon Society, co-sponsor of the count with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Scientists cannot say yet whether the birds' movements are climate-related or short-term reaction to storms, hot or cold spells, disruption of habitat or food availability. However, the results of the four-day tally performed in February are "a tempting indicator of change, which may turn out to be the early stages of the effects of changing climate on bird distribution," Green says. "We won't know for certain until we have another 20 years of data."
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Tim Melling, a Royal Society for the Protection of Birds conservation officer who is based in Yorkshire, says that he heard larks singing in early February. The birds are reacting to unseasonably warm and sunny weather.
Britain is emerging from its warmest winter ever recorded. BBC weatherman Paul Hudson reported that the county's highest ever January overnight temperate, 11.5 degrees Celcius, was recorded at Leeming, a temperature more normal at that time of year for North Africa rather than North Yorkshire.
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A CHANGE in climate could be the cause of the early arrival of orange-bellied parrots to the south-west.
Co-ordinator for the South West Orange-Bellied Parrot Working Group, Dianne Davis, said one of the rare birds was spotted with a flock of blue-winged parrots on a property at Killarney last week.
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Birds have long been indicators of envionmental change, sounding the alarm about the impacts of pesticides, polluted water, and the loss of contiguous forest. While IMBD continues to promote the joy of birds, it will also tackle a challenging, yet pertinent topic in 2007 - climate change.
The reactions of birds to weather have long been noted. For hundreds of years, farmers have used the arrivals of migratory birds to make decisions about planting crops. Changes in the movements of some species is just one indicator of the warming of the Earth's atmosphere. Today, as the rate of warming increases, scientists are exploring how climate change will affect birds and how we can reduce our impact.
Go to the IMBD Site
As for the timing of the birds' migration, some suspect that changes in weather patterns could be responsible.
"We're experiencing climate change all over the world," Roth said. "Whether they call it global warming is a whole other issue, but the change in climate is being expressed in delayed migration in the autumn and earlier migration in the springtime." Read More...
Move over cuckoos. In this era of global warming the chiffchaff has become the harbinger of spring.
The first sightings of chiffchaffs in Britain this year were reported yesterday prompting bird watchers to proclaim that spring has started.
It joined a wealth of indicators that spring has well and truly arrived, including frogspawn in northern Scotland, butterflies by the score and flowers everywhere.
This time last year the country was still in the grip of snow and Arctic winds.
Yesterday Gravesend in Kent recorded 18C (64F), the highest temperature of the year so far — whereas in 2006 it was late April before similar warmth was felt.
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Alan Davies, site manager at the RSPB's Conwy reserve, said this spring is the most bizarre he has ever experienced.There has been spring-like activity for weeks, he said. 'This has been the earliest spring ever in the bird world; it is totally unprecedented. It is easily five or six weeks ahead - it's all gone haywire.
'A swallow was spotted in South Wales on February 18, after flying here from the Cape, South Africa. The wheatear and sand martin are already here too. They are very early - it's crazy.
'The black-backed gull that winters in Morocco arrived in huge numbers in February and reed bunting - usually here in April - were sighted on February 20.
'Lapwing are already making their nests ready for breeding. And the bird dawn chorus sounds fantastic at the moment and has already reached the peak levels you would usually expect in April.' Read More...
My friend Mary is quite enthralled with cardinals. It’s not only how handsome the bright red males are or how dedicated they are to their less colorful mates, but because they are a relatively new phenomenon for her. When Mary first moved into her New Hampshire home more than 60 years ago, cardinals were rare.
But now these pretty birds are found throughout the Granite State from Brookline to Berlin. The reason has been attributed to the increase in bird-feeders but can also be linked to our increasingly milder winters. read more...
One of Britain's largest puffin colonies is being wiped out by an invasive plant that is thriving in warmer temperatures brought about by climate change.
In just seven years a colony of 29,000 breeding pairs of puffins on the island of Craigleith, just a mile from the coast of North Berwick, has been reduced to fewer than 3,000. They have been driven to the edge of extinction by a dusky-pink, 8ft flowering plant called tree mallow. Introduced by 18th-century lighthouse keepers and sheep farmers on nearby Bass Rock the woolly-leafed plant is renowned for its medicinal properties and was used as natural bandage. read more...
A WILDLIFE sanctuary has rescued a two-week-old blackbird, the first time
such a young bird has been found at this time of year.The fledgling was
discovered in a garden in South London and brought to the Willow Wildlife
Sanctuary in Chislehurst by a concerned bird lover.Eddie Williams, who runs the
rescue service said: "This has got to be a first, and it must be because of the
mild weather. It takes 13 days for these birds to incubate, and then another 13
to 14 days to fly after the egg has hatched."The egg must have been laid around
January 20 at the latest, as the bird is still a few days away from growing the
full tail it needs to fly.Mr Williams will keep the bird for up to two weeks to
ensure it is fit and healthy when it is released.
Around a fifth of the bird species listed under the Convention could be affected by rising sea levels, erosion and greater wave action linked with climate change. read more
The increase in sightings could be the result of climate change encouraging the griffin vulture, a smaller variety which survives in Europe, to come to Britain. read more
Wales could lose one of its rarest birds of prey, the Red Kite, because of climate change and other human impacts, WWF Cymru warned today.
Morgan Parry, Head of WWF Cymru, said, "This beautiful creature can be found mainly in rural Ceredigion but they could soon be under threat throughout the whole of Europe. Scientists have projected that the Red Kite will suffer up to 86 per cent loss of its habitat due to climate change and other human impacts unless we act now.
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A red-winged blackbird population in Ontario, Canada, has fallen by 50 per cent in the past 25 years due to global warming, a US researcher has claimed.
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“Robust scientific evidence shows that climate change is now affecting birds’ behaviour,” said Dr Karl Mallon, Scientific Director at Climate Risk Pty Ltd and one of the authors of the report. “We are seeing migratory birds failing to migrate, and climate change pushing increasing numbers of birds out of synchrony with key elements of their ecosystems.”
Claude Feigné, an ornithologist from the Gascony-Landes Regional Park, said that global warming was keeping the birds in their summer nesting grounds for longer.
Read More...
For decades, the arrival of the first V-shaped flights of Bewick's swans in Britain's wetlands after a 2,000-mile journey from Siberia heralded the arrival of winter.
This year, a dramatic decline in numbers of the distinctive yellow-billed swans skidding into their winter feeding grounds could be the harbinger of a more dramatic shift in weather patterns: global warming. Ornithologists at the main reserves that host the birds, the smallest of Britain's swans, said only a handful had appeared on lakes and water courses. Normally, there would be several hundred. Read Article
Climate change is sending birds once native to Africa north, to settle in southern Spain, scientists say.
Read Article
But their remarkable feat may be coming to an end. Recent studies have shown that some sooty shearwater breeding colonies have declined by more than 40 percent, which researchers believe is a result of warming ocean temperatures. As sea temperatures rise, possibly from global warming, the mixing of colder, nutrient-rich water from the ocean depths with warmer surface water declines, limiting the growth of algae and everything that feeds upon it.--- Read More
In 2005/06, Canada experienced its warmest winter since modern record-keeping began, with average temperatures 3.9 degrees Celsius above normal. And, more Ontario birdwatchers than ever before were treated to sightings of two southern specialists, the Red-bellied Woodpecker and the Northern Cardinal last winter.
Kerrie Wilcox, national coordinator of Project FeederWatch, a North American-wide survey of birds coming to backyard feeders, noted that the percentage of feeders visited by Red-bellied Woodpeckers in Ontario reached an all-time high last winter, occurring at nearly 15 per cent of feeders. The Red-bellied Woodpecker's range has been creeping northward from its core in the mid- Atlantic and southeastern states over the last decade. This species rarely visited more than five per cent of sites just five years ago.
Northern Cardinals were reported at a whopping 72% of feeders in Ontario this past winter. While many people in southern Ontario are now accustomed to seeing cardinals at their feeders, this southern species was almost unheard of in the province 100 years ago.
Range expansions in southern species such as these could be a signal that changes in climate are making northern regions more hospitable. Likewise, it would be expected that birds located at the southern edge of their range would retract with warmer climatic conditions. One feeder species that may be showing this trend is the Gray Jay.
The percentage of feeders visited by Gray Jays has decreased to 7% since a peak of 14.1% of Ontario feeders in 1999. Climate change may be altering the Gray Jay's habitat in the southern end of its range. While other birds fly south to warm places for the winter, the Gray Jay stays put, surviving on tiny bits of food it has stored in an estimated 100,000 locations, usually under scales of bark on spruce trunks and branches. ...Read More...
The 2005 breeding failure highlights how anomalies in the climate can hit the bottom of the food web and then reverberate all the way up. While the auklets showed the most dramatic and immediate effects, the scientists say the lack of krill likely impacted everything from salmon to whales.
There are fears global warming will eventually wipe out the seabird colonies.
"What we are concerned about is that events like we saw last year are going to become more frequent because of climate change," Hipfner says. "That's what we're really worried about."...Read More
Among all the potential threats to Bicknell’s habitat, global climate change is the most worrisome, Rimmer said. "If current trends continue, over the next 50 years we’re going to see a dramatic change and loss of the balsam fir forests that these birds require," he said...Read More
Even more profound are the changes occurring in the nation's wildlife, and in particular, birds. The redwing, a species of thrush that was once a frequent visitor from Scandinavia in winter, is disappearing from our skies. 'It used to fly to Scotland to eat our berries and avoid the freezing conditions of its Scandinavian homeland, but now winters have become so mild over there, it is staying put,' said Paul Stancliffe of the British Trust for Ornithology.
Then there is Cetti's Warbler, a small, brownish bird with a notable, loud song, and a penchant for warm weather. It first arrived in Britain in 1961 and made a home for itself in Hampshire, one of the warmest corners of the British Isles. Then global warming began to take its steamy grip of the United Kingdom. Today temperatures have soared so high across Britain that the Cetti reached the Scottish border last year and now breeds regularly as far north as Yorkshire.
Similarly, the blackcap, a distinctive grey species of warbler found in many parts of Europe, used to make a point of migrating to the Mediterranean and north Africa during winter. Now conditions have become so warm that warblers in Germany have found it just as pleasant to migrate to the UK instead, thus saving it a lengthy continental journey. For the blackcap, Britain is the new Adriatic.
Read More
For the first time, a team studied the threats of rising sea levels to the Northwestern Hawaiian Island chain. Jason Baker of the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center — part of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — led the team. Their study suggests that monk seals, sea turtles and millions of sea birds could go extinct before the end of this century due to global warming. Read More...
The effects on wildlife are profound. Birds in the south have to find new areas to raise their young, while small mammals, such as badgers, are now being seen in parts of the north for the first time. Read More...
David Ramsden, head of conservation at the Barn Owl Trust, said: “This is the worst year I have known and I have been doing this for virtually 20 years.
"The problem with global warming is we get record-breaking weather every year and any extreme weather conditions are really bad for barn owls."...read more
The lush lakes, ponds and wetlands that comprise the Devils Lake Wetland Management District are likely to dry up in the future, threatening duck populations, as a result of drought caused by global warming... read more
When it comes to climate change, what's love got to do with it? A lot, according to a study of shifts in bird migrations in response to global warming. Competition for females may be helping some species adapt to climate change more quickly... read article
Their move north to London from nesting sites on the south coast could be a sign of climate change, experts believe...
Many people had been astonished that the bird, more commonly seen in the Mediterranean, was now breeding in this country.
Warmer winters "will certainly have benefited" its spread, he said.
Thames Water's biodiversity manager Andy Tomczynski said: "We are delighted that these rare and beautiful birds have chosen to breed in the capital and we hope they can go on and establish a permanent colony at our Walthamstow reservoirs.
"Little Egrets do not cope well with harsh winters and only started breeding in the UK a decade ago, colonising parts of the south coast. Their nesting further to the north could be another sign of climate change."
Climate change has led to a catastrophic crash in the population of Britain's barn owls, it was claimed today.
Extreme weather conditions are to blame for a catastrophic fall in the number of barn owls, an expert said today.
As few as 1,000 breeding pairs of the distinctive bird may have survived in Britain, a dramatic fall from an estimated 4,000 pairs last year.
Claims that extreme weather conditions had dramatically reduced the number of breeding pairs in Britain to as few as 1000, from 4000 the year before, were dismissed by Nigel Middleton as exaggerated.
The Hawk and Owl Trust's conservation officer for the eastern region said the barn-owl population in Norfolk had fallen slightly but this was due to other factors than just the weather and would go back up.
He said: "We are at the bottom of a four-yearly cycle in the vole population, which always means the numbers of barn owls falls as there's less for them to eat.
"It will rise again next year."
The island's puffin population has suffered in recent years from an invasion by an alien plant species, which grew out of control and smothered the birds' burrows, leaving them unable to lay their eggs, driving them away from the island.
Tree mallow, a Mediterranean species which can grow up to three metres tall, is believed to have been introduced to the Bass Rock in the 17th century for medicinal use. It is thought that warmer weather, as a result of climate change, has helped the plant to spread at the puffins' expense.
Scientists are puzzled by the deaths of the birds and other unusual patterns in the ocean ecosystem. Along the Central Coast, waters have been much warmer than usual, and even fish market workers have noticed the change.
The project will also create a huge new inter-tidal habitat, attracting more species of wildfowl and wading birds to the area including shelduck, wigeon, teal, avocet and redshank.
"Many people believe that because Balearic Shearwaters nest in the Mediterranean, they must love warmth. However, they leave the Mediterranean in mid summer and head north through the Bay of Biscay towards relatively cool British waters. They are cold-water specialists, but with climate change warming the oceans, the seas are becoming less productive, and we believe birds are moving ever further north to find sufficient food," explains Carles Carboneras, a seabird expert with SEO/BirdLife, the BirdLife partner in Spain.
