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Audubon finds climate change puts 64% of North American birds at risk

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Audubon finds climate change puts 64% of North American birds at risk

Nearly two-thirds of all North American birds are at moderate to high risk of being impacted by climate change and certain human activities under a 3-degree global warming scenario. However, fast action to tackle human-caused emissions and limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial levels would mean that only 47% of the bird populations would be vulnerable, the National Audubon Society said in a new report issued Oct. 10.

SNL Image

An adult female Baltimore Oriole, the official state bird of Maryland, feeds a nestling. An Oct. 10, 2019, report by the National Audubon Society found that more frequently occurring heat waves in the spring season due to global warming can put young birds such as Baltimore Orioles at risk of dying from heat stress.
Source: National Audubon Society

The report looked at the effects that climate change-related impacts such as extreme weather events and shifts in when seasons occur could have on 604 bird species in the U.S., Canada and Mexico during breeding and nonbreeding seasons.

The group based its findings on bird observations gathered in scientific databases and then combined machine learning models to compare current conditions to the global warming scenarios outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC.

Scientists at the IPCC have warned that the world needs to move rapidly to limit heat-trapping emissions by 2030 and to achieve net-zero emissions by around 2050 to avoid some of the worst possible impacts of climate change.

Audubon found that 389 North American bird species, or about 64%, are at risk from climate change impacts and related human activity. "Sea level rise, changes in lake levels, cropland expansion, and urbanization will cause longterm changes in habitat, while extreme weather events can have significant effects on populations through direct impacts on reproduction and survival and indirect impacts on habitat and resource availability," the report said.

For example, with 3 degrees of global warming, the Wood Thrush that breeds primarily in eastern U.S. forests could lose more than half of all of its current range and may no longer breed in a handful of states where it now breeds. Some of the at-risk species are official state birds such as Maryland's Baltimore Oriole, Georgia's Brown Thrasher, Minnesota's Common Loon, New Hampshire's Purple Finch, and Iowa and New Jersey's American Goldfinch.

One threat, extreme heat in spring months, could prove particularly dangerous to young birds for a number of species including the American Robin and Northern Pintail duck, the report said. It added that young birds could suffer from heat stress in such events, which could cause increased mortality rates. Similarly, droughts can also cause mortality numbers to climb, diminish the potential for birds to successfully reproduce, and trigger species to move to other, less familiar locations.