Audubon Report: Climate Change Could Hurt Mass. Bird Population

Climate change could affect many Bay State birds — including familiar species such as the Black-capped Chickadee — over the next 30 to 50 years, according to Mass Audubon’s State of the Birds: Massachusetts Birds and Our Changing Climate.

The report, released last week, is the third in the respected conservation organization’s State of the Birds series, which monitors the status of bird life in Massachusetts.  But while the earlier documents relied on data collected over past decades to appraise the Commonwealth’s bird life at the time of their publications in 2011 and 2013, the 2017 edition utilizes science-based climate models to project species’ fates in the future.

“State of the Birds” builds on those previous reports and identifies conservation priorities for more than 100 species that will be affected by changing patterns of temperature and rainfall, “both manifestations of a warming planet,” according to a news release from the organization.

Findings in the new report warn that more than 40 percent of the species included in the study show “high vulnerability” to climate change.

For instance, birds that rely on coastal habitats facing erosion from storms of greater strength and frequency, such as already threatened Piping Plovers and Least and Roseate Terns, may well be at greater risk.  The Saltmarsh Sparrow, which can thrive only within a thin tidal range and thus is especially vulnerable to sea level rise, could be extinct by late century, according to the report.

In eastern Massachusetts, where the chickadee has long been a dependable visitor at feeders and backyard trees, the state bird of Massachusetts may be more rarely encountered.

Read more at Audubon Report:  Climate Change Could Hurt Mass. Bird Population