Climate change is causing Amazonian birds to get smaller, have longer wings: Study

A study published in Science Advances suggests that Amazonian birds are shrinking in size whilst gaining longer wings, and scientists are blaming global warming for it. As per a report by The Guardian, the study focused on non-migratory birds in pristine rainforests. It took place near the Amazon Biodiversity Center in the Brazilian Amazon.

Scientists have used the distant area as a controlled setting for studying the impacts of deforestation and development on the ecosystem since the 1970s. Data on 77 bird species over the last 40 years have shown that practically every non-migratory species found there has shrunk and one-third of them have longer wings as well. Experts say that morphological alteration is thought to be caused by global warming. According to The Guardian's report, the region has warmed 1.65°C in the dry season and 1°C in the wet season since the 1970s. In addition, the rainy season has gotten wetter, while the dry season has gotten drier.

The majority of the birds in the new study reside within a few kilometres

The study's principal author Vitek Jirinec, along with his mentor Philip Stouffer and colleagues released a paper last year that showed declining populations in nine of the 79 non-migratory bird species in the control sites, according to the Guardian. The majority of the birds in the new study reside within a few kilometres of each other, but the researchers discovered that certain species had reduced by about 10% during 40 years of data.

Changing temperature or precipitation must have played a role in the findings, according to Jirinec. He also stated that increased temperatures, which one would anticipate to find closer to the equator, are causing smaller bodies in birds in the Amazon. The rise in wing length is more perplexing, according to the researchers, who believe birds may now need to fly further. They couldn't tell if the changes were due to evolutionary pressures or if the birds were changing shape as they got older to adapt to the new environment, according to the Guardian.

Species could migrate to more suited habitats

Mario Cohn-Haft, an ornithologist at Manaus' National Institute of Amazonian Research Institute stated that imagining birds modifying their body type to changing environmental conditions is fascinating. Cohn-Haft believes that there is space for hope. He also speculated that species could migrate to more suited habitats if they had longer wings.

Image: Unsplash/ AP