Shifts in Bird Migration Timing in North American Long-Distance and Short-Distance Migrants Are Associated with Climate Change

Abstract

Bird migration is a synchronized event that has evolved over thousands of years. Changing temperatures due to climate change threaten the intricacies of migration timing for birds; however, the extent of these changes has only recently begun to be addressed. Utilizing data from the citizen-science website eBird and historical temperature data, we analyzed bird migration timing in two states warming quickly (Alaska and Maine) and one warming gradually (South Carolina). Using linear regressions, we looked at relationships between different temperature indices and year with bird migration timing from 2010 to 2016. Bird migration through all three states, regardless of warming rate, showed similar rates of alterations. Additionally, in every state over half of the birds that had altered migration timing were long-distance migrants. Furthermore, we performed feature selection to determine important factors for changing migration timing of birds. Changes to summer resident and transient bird migration were most influenced by state. In winter resident migration, departure date and length of stay were most influenced by maximum temperature, while arrival date was most associated with minimum temperature. Relationships between changing temperatures and migration timing suggest that global climate change may have consequential effects on all bird migration patterns throughout the United States.

The influence of weather on avian spring migration phenology: What, where and when?

“…The observed differences between short‐ and long‐distance migrants for the temperature–spring phenology relation using these “local” temperatures has, among others, contributed to the belief that spring migration of short‐distance migration is mostly under exogenous control, while that of long‐distance migrants is mostly endogenously controlled (Gienapp et al, ; King, Wang, Yang, & Fischer, ). Various studies have, however, started to question this hypothesis (Aloni et al, ; Hüppop & Hüppop, ; Lehikoinen & Sparks, ; Tøttrup et al, ; Zaifman, Shan, Ay, & Jimenez, ).…”

Climatic variation in Africa and Europe has combined effects on timing of spring migration in a long-distance migrant Willow WarblerPhylloscopus trochilus

“…Environmental conditions have changed in recent decades as a consequence of global climate change and these changes have had knock-on effects in the timing of the life stages of plants and animals (e.g., Walther et al, 2002;Vose, Easterling & Gleason, 2005;Peñuelas, 2009). Phenological changes in bird migrations are one of the best-described animal responses to climate change in the northern hemisphere (e.g., Miller-Rushing et al, 2008;Wood & Kellermann, 2015;Miles et al, 2017;Zaifman et al, 2017;Lehikoinen et al, 2019). The timing of many passerines' arrival in the European spring has shifted earlier in recent decades (e.g., Sokolov et al, 1998;Hüppop & Hüppop, 2003;Vähätalo et al, 2004;Tøttrup, Thorup & Rahbek, 2006a;Miles et al, 2017), which is mostly linked to increasing spring temperatures (Lehikoinen et al, 2019).…”

Seasonal muscle ultrastructure plasticity and resistance of muscle structural changes during temperature increases in resident black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) and rock pigeons (Columba livia)

“…There is ample evidence that the Earth is warming, likely as a result of anthropogenic activity (Thompson, 2010). Environmental stresses brought about by climate change, particularly thermal stress, may play a key role in both setting biogeographic boundaries (Pudalov et al, 2017;Zaifman et al, 2017) and driving evolutionary patterns on broad spatial and temporal scales (Chown et al, 2010). Birds breeding in temperate zones where seasonal temperatures drastically fluctuate respond to these changes by either migrating to regions with more agreeable temperatures or altering their phenotype to deal with changing conditions (Swanson, 2010).…”