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In response to warming temperatures, spring is now arriving substantially earlier than it did several decades ago. While North American songbirds are shifting when they migrate and breed, they are failing to keep pace with the rate of climate change, resulting in fewer young being produced.

July 24, 2023

For birds, earlier springtime means fewer young

Tags:

IBIO, bird populations, breeding impacts, climate change, postdoctoral researchers

Rising global temperatures are making it harder for birds to know when it’s spring and time to breed according to a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A large collaboration led by Michigan State University integrative biologist Casey Youngflesh in partnership with the University of California, Los Angeles, has found that birds produce fewer young if they start breeding too early or late in the season. With climate change resulting in earlier springlike weather, the researchers report, birds have been unable to keep pace.

Michigan State University and the National Audubon Society are collaborating to project future impacts to hundreds of bird species, including the American redstart, pictured here.

January 17, 2023

Data-driven bird conservation project takes wing

Tags:

IBIO, biodiversity, bird populations, climate change, eeb, statistical models

Michigan State University and the National Audubon Society are teaming up to help protect declining bird populations across North America. With $1.3 million from a collaborative National Science Foundation grant, the team—led by MSU integrative biologist Elise Zipkin—will develop statistical models fueled by four massive data sets to evaluate how climate change and land use are affecting hundreds of bird species.