Wildlife

Early Birds

A new study reveals that some birds in the American Midwest are now laying their eggs about a month earlier than they did a century ago, with a steadily warming climate pointed to as the cause.

Led by Chicago’s Field Museum, a team compared century-old eggs preserved in the museum’s unique collection with recent avian observations. Each egg is accompanied by a label, noting the kind of bird and precisely where and when it was collected. A third of the 72 species studied around Chicago now lay their eggs about 25 days earlier than they did a century ago.

The gradual shift to an earlier spring has resulted in large impacts on animal and plant life cycles. Scientists believe this is responsible for the steep decline in bird populations since the 1970s.

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