Wildlife

Long-Distance Migratory Birds Go Hungry

Some migrating songbirds are going a little hungry because they have not adjusted their long-distance springtime journeys back north in response to climate change, a Canadian scientist warns.

Kevin Fraser of York University says he found that purple martins, which migrate from the Amazon Basin to North America, arrived too late to enjoy the abundant food that accompanied the earliest and hottest spring on record in 2012.

He says that since there is no hint of what spring will be like while the birds are still in Brazil, they don’t receive any clues of what the northern spring will be like until they reach the U.S. Gulf Coast.

He says that, at least in 2012, they “missed out on peak food they need to be productive breeders.”

Fraser warns that the lack of adjustment to climate change may be contributing to the decline in migratory songbird populations.

This is especially true for species that migrate very long distances.