Birds Thrived During Covid-19 Lockdowns, New Study Shows
By Robert Lee Hotz, 9/22/21, Wall St. Journal

From hummingbirds to eagles, birds across North America
flocked to once frenetic urban areas that had locked down
in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, acc. to a new study
based on millions of observations by amateur bird-watchers.

Populations of dozens of bird species rose significantly
around city centers, major roads and airports apparently
in response to the lull in human activity, a research team
led by scientists at the U. of Manitoba in Winnipeg found.
Some species were as much as 14 times more numerous during
the lockdowns than before pandemic restrictions were imposed.

“I'm shocked at the fact we saw so many changes in bird
behavior,” said Nicola Koper, a conservation scientist at
the university and senior author of the study. “All birds
are way more sensitive to human disturbance than we had
really realized. Once we reduced traffic, we got almost
immediate movement of birds into these landscapes.”

The findings were based on more than 4.3 million obser-
vations by thousands of birders in the U.S. and Canada,
gathered thru a citizen-science program managed by the
Cornell U. Lab of Ornithology called eBird. The sightings
covered 82 species during the 2020 spring migration season,
which coincided with large declines in human activity tied
to the lockdowns. The researchers compared those observations
with reports of bird populations before & after the lockdowns.

Pigeons appeared unaffected by the lockdowns, the scientists
said. But American robins quickly moved into crowded urban
areas and along roads they had previously shunned, and the
number of ruby-throated hummingbirds seen near airports
tripled, the researchers found.

Populations of bald eagles increased more in counties with
strict lockdowns than in those with looser restrictions.
The numbers of red-tailed hawks rose in city centers but
fell slightly near roads, perhaps as a result of the
reduced availability of roadkills for scavenging as
road traffic eased.

Species of New World warblers & sparrows were observed in
higher numbers, a finding the researchers called
“particularly notable, as these two families account for
nearly 50% of the 3 billion lost in North America since 1970.”

Ken Rosenberg, an ornithologist at Cornell who studies
bird populations, said, “They are very responsive to
positive change and that is a hopeful sign.” He wasn’t
part of the project. “For nature, it has been a little bit
of a reprieve. A population response by birds makes a lot
of sense,” he said.

The 20 billion birds living or migrating in North America
every year face a gantlet of human-related hazards, from
nesting grounds and food sources lost to commercial or
residential development to pet cats and pesticide use.
Cats kill 2.4 billion birds annually, according to the
Migratory Bird Center at the Smithsonian Conservation
Biology Institute and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

About 600 million birds die in the U.S. each year in
collisions with buildings, especially glass-covered or
illuminated skyscrapers, according to a 2019 study
published in Frontiers in Ecology and Environment.

The new research suggests that minor changes to control
road noise or residential lighting could bring immediate
benefits to wildlife. “It’s clear that it would have very
rapid effects,” Dr. Koper said. “We could have immediate
benefits to many wildlife species, including the birds
that we enjoy.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/birds-thrived-during-covid-19-lockdowns-new-study-shows-11632333600

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