Climate change is affecting many areas of the environment, with the biosphere being one of the most exposed categories. The temperatures are rising, and this is causing trouble to the nightingales, the most favorite songbirds in the world. Research conducted in Spain is showing that over the past two decades, nightingales have started to develop smaller wingspans.
The underdevelopment of the species is caused by the high rise temperature in the area where the research was performed, as well as the increasing amount of days with drought, as the data shows. What is even more alarming is that this decrease may perturb nightingales’ natural way of migrating during cold periods.
Climate change affects the nightingales
The nightingales are commonly seen in most of the European areas and Asia, but hardly in southern England. The bird is famous for its capability to produce over 1.000 various musical sounds. In Southern England, the presence of this species has diminished during the last decades, with more than 90%. The reasons are numerous, including hostile habitat such as deer eating their homes, but also the change in the British climate.
Most commonly, the nightingale migrates to the sub-Saharan Africa where it spends the winter. However, due to the high decrease in their ability to fly, their migration is very difficile to accomplish. This may be caused by the spring delay and the drought present in summer, creating shorter optimal breeding for the nightingales.
Frequently, the birds should adapt to their lifestyle, therefore growing their wings in return for a shorter life span. Nonetheless, this is not the case as the rising temperatures due to the climate change are interfering with their breeding period. At the moment, the nightingales’ families have smaller families with smaller wings, and they are pursuing the same migration patterns. This automatically implies that their survival will most probably be reduced.
