Indiana bird species could diminish over time because of unusually warm weather created by climate change, according to research from the Robert Cooper Audubon Society, an environmental organization dedicated to wildlife conservation.
Early springs can disrupt migration cycles and when birds reproduce. The timing of food availability, such as when insects emerge, changes as the weather gets warmer. This means food could be limited by the time birds migrate to Indiana, so birds will have to migrate even further or go hungry.
“If spring occurs a few weeks early, and the budding of plants and emergence of insects comes early, then within a year the population could decline,” Environmental Resilience Institute researcher Adam Fudickar said. “Their breeding won’t be synced with the timing of the resources.”
With spring coming earlier, birds are arriving at the end of the warm season to breed. If migratory birds have less time to reproduce, the number of offspring could decrease, Fudickar said.
