Report: Climate Change Pace Moving Faster Than Birds Can Fly
Friday, July 5, 2013
PHOENIX – Birds are often considered highly adaptable, but a new report from the National Wildlife Federation claims that many species are struggling as the climate changes.
In Arizona, the effects are seen in the more than 500 species that migrate – including 150 species of hummingbirds.
NWF senior scientist Doug Inkley says people may assume that migratory birds have an advantage because they can fly to different places.
"The opposite is true,” he says. “They're actually more vulnerable than most of the species that are more residential in nature.
“Migratory birds face the unique challenge of climate change potentially affecting any of the multiple habitats that they require – to breed, to migrate and to overwinter."
Inkley says one problem with changing flight patterns and timing is that the birds show up at the wrong times for their natural food sources.
The Shifting Skies report cites climate change as the biggest threat to birds in this century.
Western forests are seeing pine beetle infestations that the report says are climate-related.
Nic Callero, the NWF’s regional outreach coordinator, says that starts a chain reaction that ends up affecting birds.
"What we're seeing right now is a huge increase in large-scale forest fires from that specific climate impact,” he explains. “And when these fires burn out of control, they burn hotter and they burn larger, we see a huge impact on wildlife and also on many of the migratory bird species."
The report makes some recommendations for curbing climate change, including more aggressive enforcement of the Clean Air Act, doing more to encourage clean energy development and minimizing coal as a power source.
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