SOURCE: CarbonBrief
DATE: Aug 8, 2017
SNIP: Migrating birds might not be able to fly home fast enough to meet shifts in springtime in Europe driven by climate change, new research suggests.
Flying back too early or too late for spring is costly for birds. Their arrival must coincide with the emergence of food sources, such as caterpillars, in order to enable them to feed and successfully rear their young.
Birds that overwinter in warmer climes, including willow warblers, tree pipits and barn swallows, will be unable to cut their migrations short as climate change causes spring to arrive earlier in many parts of Europe, researchers find.
This new evidence suggests that birds are much less adaptable to climate change than previously hoped, another scientist tells Carbon Brief.