• Birds Thrived During Covid-19 Lockdowns, New Study Shows

    From David P.@21:1/5 to All on Thu Oct 7 10:46:08 2021
    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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