Migratory bird patterns are being affected by global warming. Winter migratory patterns are being affected around the world, and in some cases forcing birds to fly further then before. 
Due to longer spring and summer season’s birds that flew to Africa now have to fly further south to get into the proper climate, and the return trips north are taking longer. In some instances birds are flying east to west versus north to south because of global warming. Birds in Europe, particularly the Blackcap, now head west instead of south by going from Germany to the UK because it’s now milder in Britain. I’ve personally noticed the change this season in my own back yard. Mourning Dove’s tend to come and inhabit my back yard during the spring, so I was a bit surprised when I heard them cooing this past weekend. I found it odd that they would show up so soon. Their pattern is to fly south to the Yucatan peninsula and work their way back up north into Canada. This time of year does not provide a lot of feeding options for these birds, at least until late March. So I can only imagine that their ability to survive will be impacted by lack of feeding options. An interesting note is that migratory birds are tending to stay closer to home because of the rise in outdoor bird feeders. Certain species stick around in the winter anyway, particularly Cardinals. But, we’ve seen Blue Jays now in greater frequency, and that could be due to the proliferation of bird feeders. Scientists are concerned about the impact global climate change is having on migratory patterns, but even through all of this climate change, new adaptive migratory patterns have begun to take hold. The Chiffchaff, which normally migrates to Iberia and North Africa rather than crossing the Sahara, now regularly over winters in Britain, especially in the milder areas of the south and west. Eventually nature seems to find ways to adapt before it’s too late. I just hope we can too.
Photo: Blue Heron Photo By: John Vlahakis
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