Spring is the sweet spot for breeding songbirds in California’s Central Valley – not too hot, not too wet.
Spring is the sweet spot for breeding songbirds in California’s Central Valley – not too hot, not too wet. But climate change models indicate the region will experience more rainfall during the breeding season, and days of extreme heat are expected to increase. Both changes threaten the reproductive success of songbirds, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.
The study, published Jan. 16 in the journal Biological Conservation, details how extreme heat and rainfall patterns have impacted songbirds along the Putah Creek Nestbox Highway in Yolo County.
While centered in the Central Valley, the study serves as a warning for other Mediterranean ecosystems.
“The changes happening in California’s Central Valley — increasing temperatures, wetter springs, greater variability — those impacts are happening across Mediterranean landscapes,” said lead author Jason Riggio, a postdoctoral scholar with the UC Davis Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology. “In spaces where birds are already in an extremely variable climate, small changes will make a big difference.”
Read more at: University of California - Davis
Me first! No me! Tree swallow fledglings ready to meet the world. South Fork Preserve, Yolo County, California, June 2014. (Photo Credit: Evelien de Greef, UC Davis)
