Drought Causes Sonoran Desert Birds to Drastically Delay Nesting

As climate change continues to impact the world, drought is spreading in certain areas. Now, a new study reveals that birds are delaying nesting by two weeks or more due to drought conditions.

For the past several years, there's been increased drought frequency in southwestern North America. That's why the researchers decided to study bird species in the Sonoran Desert.

The researchers examined 13 Sonoran Desert bird species. They found that after winters of low rainfall, all 13 species that were monitored experienced delayed nesting. Since climate models are nearly unanimous in their predictions for increased drought frequency in southwestern North America, this finding could raise major concerns for long term health of desert bird populations.

"Other studies correlate with our findings, perhaps indicating a more widespread delayed nesting of birds in arid ecosystems," said Chris McCreedy, one of the researchers, in a news release. "These responses are predicted to become more frequent and extreme, due to climate change, causing us to question how desert birds will persist in the long-term."

In fact, this delay in nesting can push the start of nesting back by several weeks in severe drought. This makes it harder for many of the Sonoran Desert birds species to successfully produce young that year, since they're the most vulnerable to nest predators and parasites.

The findings reveal that a lack of rainfall could be a key threat to bird populations in arid landscapes. More specifically, it shows that even when rain falls, past drought could mean that species may not have time to recover before the next drought hits.

"To understand how late the delay is, it would be like if the robins nesting in your yard, who typically begin nesting in April, did not begin to nest until nearly Memorial Day," said McCreedy.

The findings are published in the journal Auk.

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).