Climate change threatens half of North America’s birds
Associated Press
Top: This undated handout photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows an American Robin. The critical ranges of more than half of the 588 North American bird species will either shrink significantly or move into uncharted territory for the animal, according to analysis by the society’s top scientist. While other studies have made similar pronouncements, this report gives the most comprehensive projections to what is likely to happen to America’s birds.
Middle left: This undated handout photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a turkey vulture. Middle right: This photo shows a Yellow-Rumped Warbler on the University of New Mexico campus, in Albuquerque, N.M. Directly above: This undated file image provided by the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge shows sandhill cranes at the refuge near Socorro, N.M.
Dean Hanson
File-This Sept. 23, 2010, file photo shows a Yellow-Rumped Warbler on the University of New Mexico campus, in Albuquerque, N.M. About 50 bird species in New Mexico are being threatened by climate change, according to the study released earlier this week. The study said New Mexico birds at risk include the Bullock’s oriole, the prairie falcon, the pinyon jay and the mallard duck, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported Sunday, Sept. 14, 2014.
Jana Svobodova
File-This undated file image provided by the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge shows sandhill cranes at the refuge near Socorro, N.M. About 50 bird species in New Mexico are being threatened by climate change, according to the study released earlier this week. The study said New Mexico birds at risk include the Bullock’s oriole, the prairie falcon, the pinyon jay and the mallard duck, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported Sunday, Sept. 14, 2014.
Lee Karney
This undated handout photo provided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service shows a Turkey Vulture. The critical ranges of more than half of the 588 North American bird species will either shrink significantly or move into uncharted territory for the animal, according to analysis by the society’s top scientist. While other studies have made similar pronouncements, this report gives the most comprehensive projections to what is likely to happen to America’s birds.
Half of North America’s bird species, from common backyard visitors like the Baltimore oriole and the rufous hummingbird to wilderness dwellers like the common loon and bald eagle, are under threat from climate change and many could go extinct, an exhaustive new study has found.
Seven years of research found climate change the biggest threat to North America’s bird species.
Some 314 species face dramatic declines in population, if present trends continue, with warming temperatures pushing the birds out of their traditional ranges. Ten states and Washington, D.C. could lose their state birds.
“It is hard to imagine that we are not going to lose some of these birds permanently,” said Gary Langham, chief scientist for the Audubon Society and leader of the study.
“The scale of disruption we are projecting means that many familiar sounds, and many familiar birds that people may see in their backyards and on their walks, that help them define a place for them, may no longer be there.”
The outlook was far bleaker than a U.S. government report just a few years ago on the fate of North America’s birds under climate change. That report, in 2010, projected ocean and Arctic birds would be most vulnerable to climate change.
An updated version of that report was released on Sept. 9, 2014.
The Audubon researchers found that by mid-century, 126 of the 588 bird species in the study would lose more than half of their traditional ranges, and would go into decline.
Maryland would lose the Baltimore oriole, the mascot for the baseball team as well as the state bird, which would no longer be able to breed in the mid-Atlantic.
Lousiana would lose the brown pelican. Minnesota would lose the common loon, its state bird, which would be unable to survive in the continental United States.
Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, and Washington, D.C. would also lose their state birds.
The bald eagle, once considered a success story for American conservation, could lose 75 percent of its range by 2080.
Some birds, such as the trumpeter swan, would lose virtually all of their range towards the end of the century, according to the projections.
The study found 274 birds would maintain or increase their range under climate change. But Langham said that was not an automatic guarantee for survival. Even if the birds find more room to expand, they could face renewed competition from other species, as well as new predators.
The researchers drew on more than a century of observations from birders as well as a 40-year historical record from the U.S. Geological Survey, combining the data with 17 climate models.
The Audubon’s chief executive, David Yarnold, described the findings as a “call to action.”
The group is calling for cuts to the carbon emissions that cause climate change, as well as measures to preserve more habitats and give the birds a better chance of survival.
But the findings, though grim, may underplay the threat to survival of North America’s birds.
Langham said the study did not take into account other factors associated with climate change – such as sea level rise, which can flood marshes and other bird habitat with salt water; drought, which can kill off insects and other food sources, or extreme storms. As a result, it was likely a conservative look at the fate of birds, he said.