Birds in the Amazon are adapting to climate change by getting smaller
An analysis of 77 tropical bird species in the Amazon shows that all of them have shrunk and a third developed longer wings over the past 40 years
LIFE 12 November 2021
By Luke Taylor
The golden-crowned spadebill is among the Amazonian species getting smaller over time
Cameron Rutt
Tropical birds deep in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest are shrinking and developing longer wings as they adapt to climate change.
Researchers studied data for 77 tropical bird species over the past 40 years and found that all of them had lost body mass, with some species losing nearly 2 per cent of their weight per decade. A third of the species studied also developed longer wings.
A landmark 2019 study of birds that had crashed into buildings in Chicago, Illinois, found that they had lost mass and gained wingspan over a 40-year period, but those species were migratory. To see whether seasonal migration, the birds gradually shifting latitude or the direct effects of human activity had been driving the change, researchers examined the records of 15,000 non-migratory birds inhabiting a pristine tract of rainforest a few hours drive from the city of Manaus in north-west Brazil.
“We see these pretty remarkable changes in their bodies that are consistent with what we would expect under climate change,” says Vitek Jirinec at the Integral Ecology Research Center in California, who led the study.
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2297382-birds-in-the-amazon-are-adapting-to-climate-change-by-getting-smaller/#ixzz7C2smZPug