{"id":2858812,"date":"2023-01-18T09:10:16","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T14:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/?p=2858812"},"modified":"2023-01-18T10:37:32","modified_gmt":"2023-01-18T15:37:32","slug":"songbird-breeding-climate-change-rain-temperature-2858812-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/songbird-breeding-climate-change-rain-temperature-2858812-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change threatens songbird breeding"},"content":{"rendered":"
Climate change threatens the breeding success of songbirds, a new study shows.<\/p>\n
Spring is normally the sweet spot for breeding songbirds in California\u2019s Central Valley\u2014not too hot, not too wet. But climate change models indicate the region will experience more rainfall during the breeding season, and days of extreme heat are expected to increase. Both changes are bad for songbird breeding.<\/p>\n
The new study in the journal Biological Conservation<\/a><\/em>\u00a0details how extreme heat and rainfall patterns have affected songbirds along the Putah Creek Nestbox Highway<\/a> in Yolo County.<\/p>\n While centered in the Central Valley, the study serves as a warning for other Mediterranean ecosystems.<\/p>\n “The changes happening in California’s Central Valley\u2014increasing temperatures, wetter springs, greater variability\u2014those impacts are happening across Mediterranean landscapes,” says lead author Jason Riggio, a postdoctoral scholar with the University of California, Davis Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology. “In spaces where birds are already in an extremely variable climate, small changes will make a big difference.”<\/p>\n The study also offers signs that some birds adapt to modified systems. For example, western bluebirds<\/a> and tree swallows<\/a> are finding as much reproductive success in orchards near Putah Creek as in their natural habitat.<\/p>\n For these species, the orchards are not the ecological traps researchers initially expected them to be. Other species prefer to build their homes in riparian forest and grassland habitats.<\/p>\n Climate models predict that regional precipitation is expected to decrease from October to January and to increase from February to April\u2014pushing into the birds\u2019 breeding season<\/a>. Also, an estimated 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) increase in average maximum temperature by 2100 will challenge species already at their temperature limits.<\/p>\n To study the impacts of these changes on songbirds, the researchers analyzed 11 years-worth of data collected by Nestbox Highway project staff and its cadre of undergraduate interns from the Museum of Fish and Wildlife. This included 2,305 nesting attempts and more than 7,100 nestlings across four species of cavity-nesting songbirds\u2014western bluebirds, house wrens, tree swallows, and ash-throated flycatchers.<\/p>\nPockets of songbird breeding success<\/h3>\n