global warming information
- Birds & climate
stories about montana birds & global warming
Below we have highlighted a handful of stories about what is likely in store for Montana bird species in the face of climate change (thanks to Kate Webbink for research).
Download our concise fact sheet HERE >>
- OVERVIEW
- GRAY JAY
- BLACK SWIFT
- CLARK'S NUTCRACKER
- WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN
- SAGE GROUSE - coming soon
overview -- a few thoughts
Unless we slow the pace of climate change, our wildlife faces increasing threats, including rising temperatures, food scarcity, and habitat degradation, with populations of many species projected to decline to dangerously low levels. Birds and other wildlife will face habitat loss via causes such as more frequent or severe wildfires, flooding and droughts, invasive species, and loss of snow. The timing of birds’ migration, reproduction, breeding, nesting, and hatching are all highly adapted to match specific local conditions. Since climate change will affect different species differently, bird behavior may no longer be in sync with their food sources and other habitat needs.
Breeding and migrant birds that rely on wetlands are particularly vulnerable to a warmer and dryer climate. These wetlands will have a harder time persisting, as climate change is likely to bring more year-to-year variability in rains. More frequent and severe droughts in eastern Montana are likely to cause prairie pothole wetlands to dry up, jeopardizing millions of waterfowl during breeding season.
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Gray jays and climate change
Every fall, while migratory birds are heading south, gray jays are busy stocking up for winter on their mountain territories. They collect and store foods such as berries and carrion, and rely on the cold fall weather in the mountains to preserve their food caches. Not only is that food valuable to the birds who stored it, but it is also vital to their chicks, which hatch weeks before any new berries bloom or insects swarm on the freezing mountainsides.
However, global climate change is warming those mountainsides, and resident species are facing serious problems. For gray jays, a rapid shift in seasonal patterns means finely tuned foraging and breeding behavior will be out of sync with the alpine forests. A warmer fall can rot food stored for the winter, and worse yet, a late winter can wipe out survival odds for gray jay chicks.
Researchers like Thomas Waite and Dan Strickland have been studying how and why gray jays are disappearing from eastern Canada (at a similar latitude to Montana's). Twenty years ago, Waite and Strickland observed Canadian forests dense with jay territories, each occupied by a stable, experienced breeding pair along with mature chicks from earlier broods who stayed home for a few years to help their parents raise generations of nestlings. Today, territories appear to have decreased in quality, and their occupants are mostly younger jay couples with low nesting success and high "divorce" rates.
For more details about how gray jays are reacting to global climate change, visit:
Winter’s Early Birds National Wildlife Federation
Gray Jay Research in Algonquin Park
Text written by Kate Webbink. Photos copyright Bob Martinka.
Sources:
http://www.nrmsc.usgs.gov/science/birds
http://www.nrmsc.usgs.gov/research/global.htm
http://www.partnersinflight.org/climate_change/bibliography.cfm
black swift
It might look frighteningly precarious to us, but nesting on cliff faces behind waterfalls is common sense to a black swift. The birds have no trouble weaving behind watery curtains where their nests and chicks are well out of reach for most land predators. However, as agile as they are in flight, the species could prove fragile in the face of future obstacles. Over the past four decades, scientists have observed a slow but steady decline in the number of black swifts throughout North America (down about 6% each year). If the trend continues, the swift's particular nest habitat needs and tiny brood sizes of one chick per year could lower chances of recovery.
Scientists speculate that the black swift's declining numbers result in part from climate change. For ages, permanently snowy mountaintops have served as a vital water source, lasting late into the summer when swifts are still nesting. However, in Montana and throughout the Rocky Mountains, the annual snowpack is shrinking as a result of warmer, drier winters. And as water disappears from mountains, so might the black swifts. To complicate matters, certain human activities such as road building, logging, and cattle grazing are draining more water from the mountains as well as destroying plant diversity. Without the support of a healthy plant community, flying insects may die off, leaving the black swifts with fewer to eat.
Before scientists can pinpoint the main cause of the black swift's declining numbers, they also need more accurate information about the current condition of the species. For now that means locating nests and measuring birds--easier said than done. A 2004 survey of potential nesting sites in Montana turned up only two actual ("strongly suspected") nesting locations, along with four other foraging locations (and at least one grizzly bear). However, with persistence and help from conservation groups, researchers hope to soon have a clearer picture of swift numbers.
To learn more about how Black Swifts might fare in Montana and elsewhere, visit:
Black Swift Survey Article on ABCBirds.org
Black Swifts in Glacier National Park (Great Falls Tribune--May 28, 2008)
Partners in Flight Watch List--Black Swift (Colorado)
Results of another Black Swift Survey
Text written by Kate Webbink. Photos copyright Dan Casey.
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clark's nutcracker & whitebark pine
Throughout the northern Rockies, a close link has existed for ages between the Clark's nutcracker and the Whitebark pine. Armed with a sharp memory, a nutcracker will extract thousands of seeds from pine cones, and cache them far and wide across mountain 
territories. These seed caches are especially crucial as a primary food source in winter. Nutcrackers recover and eat seeds from most of the scattered cache locations, but the widely dispersed leftovers become the conveniently planted next generation of Whitebark Pine. Hardy Whitebark pine seedlings are able to grow quickly at high elevations and after fires, and they often pave the way for whole thriving communities of mountain species.
Over the past few decades, however, a tangle of problems has been damaging the relationship between nutcrackers and pines, and its roots may lie in climate change. Throughout North America, an invasive fungus which causes white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola) has killed off millions of Whitebark pines. A small percentage (<5%) of the trees are resistant to the fungal infection, and their survival is crucial for the species. Unfortunately, their survival is also hindered by a native species, the Pine Beetle, which kills trees by boring holes in the trunks to feed and lay eggs. No pines are resistant to their attacks, but in the past, colder climate protected higher elevation pine stands from the beetles. However, recent warming trends in the mountains have allowed the beetles to live higher in the mountains, as well as reproduce more quickly.
In order to restore pine ecosystems, researchers have been approaching the problem from broad ecological angles to focused genetic studies. For more details on how global climate change upsets ecological balance and how that balance can be understood and restored in Montana, visit:
Check out this 2011 Science Finding: Clark's Nutcracker and Whitebark Pine: Can the Birds Help the Embattled High-Country Pine Survive? (pdf)
Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation (Missoula, MT)
Whitebark Pine Monitoring Project, Northwest Connections (Swan Valley, MT)
Whitebark Pine Communities, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center
Text written by Kate Webbink. Photo copyright Bob Martinka.
Additional sources:
Resler, LM & Tomback, DF. 2008. Blister rust prevalence in Krummholz whitebark pine: Implications for treeline dynamics, Northern Rocky Mountains, Montana, USA. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research. 40(1):161-170.
White-tailed ptarmigan
The White-tailed Ptarmigan lives year-round in the alpine tundra, above tree line, in rocky areas and meadows/snowfields. These birds can be found from south central Canada south to the tops of the Rockies in New Mexico and are the only ptarmigan species south of Canada. A Species of Special Concern in Montana, it is found only in a few northwestern mountain ranges in the state. Feathered legs and feet act as snow shoes! Ptarmigan are adapted to forage throughout the winter, eating a combination of plant buds, stems and seeds in the winter and adding insects, leaves, fruits and flowers to their summer diet.
The White-tailed Ptarmigan is vulnerable to alpine habitat alterations, specifically tree encroachment into shrub-meadowlands. Additionally, Ptarmigan can be stressed by warm temperatures, above 70˚ F and may take snow baths to cool themselves down in warmer temperatures.
According to Dr. Jeff Marks (Birds of Montana – book in preparation):
Studying individuals captured at Logan Pass, Johnson (1968) determined that ptarmigan plumage provides great insulation but that the birds are inefficient in using evaporative cooling to lower their body temperature. In short, they are well adapted to the cold but are intolerant of high temperatures. They avoid heat stress in summer by moving to cool sites along watercourses and snow banks.
The non-migratory White-tailed Ptarmigan has two feather plumages protecting them from season to season against predatory raptors; white in the winter and then a cryptic brown speckled color in the summer. The stunning white phase may ultimately be the White-tailed Ptarmigan’s demise with current warming projections. With spring warming coming earlier, snow melts sooner and the tundra vegetation is exposed. However, the signal to change plumage is triggered by photoperiod, not temperature. This early melt may result in the White-tailed Ptarmigan still having its bright white plumage after the snow melts, making for a very easy target for predators.
Dr. Marks continues:
Expanding on previous studies, Benson (1999) argued that ptarmigan numbers at Logan Pass are declining owing to reduced late-summer immigration and poor habitat quality, both of which have resulted from a warmer and drier climate; areas used by ptarmigan continue to be close to running water and snow, which are now less abundant than in the early 1960s. Moreover, corticosterone levels of males were elevated in late summer, which is consistent with thermal stress.
Our actions to prevent global climate change can reduce the stress to these birds and others – let’s get busy!
state of the birds: 2010 Report on CLimate change
This annual report by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and a host of others is HERE >>
In this 2010 State of the Birds report, we consider one of the greatest
environmental challenges of our time, climate change. How will the impacts of climate change influence our bird populations and their habitats? Accelerated climate change as a result of human activities is altering the natural world as we know it, diminishing the quality of our environment. This report calls attention to the collective efforts needed to protect nature’s resources for the benefit of people and wildlife.
Birds, as we know, are excellent indicators of the health of our environment!
What does this new analysis mean for Montana?
It surely is a call to action. We can continue and expand our efforts as citizen scientists to help monitor bird populations. We can get involved in solving global warming and reduce the greenhouse gas pollutants that are the cause of this ecological disturbance. More HERE>>
- Read a NewWest.org news article on this report and Rocky Mountain Bird Conservation
- Read via the Bozeman Daily Chronicle: USFWS: Climate change impacts Northern Rockies bird populations
- Listen to a short interview on Montana Public Radio - link HERE >>
The 2010 report considers the following, in relation to Montana:
Alpine Regions:
Birds that live in alpine zones face threats from habitat alterations. Alpine tundra is predicted to be narrowed or eliminated, affecting such species as White-tailed Ptarmigan and Rosy Finches. Where do you go if you already live at the top of a mountain?
Wetlands:
Wetland breeding birds such as Western and Clark's Grebe and Northern Pintail are primarily vulnerable to changes in water level and distribution that affect
breeding habitats. We are particularly concerned with mountainous wetlands where temperature-sensitive plants and animals will be unable to move upslope. Wetlands that depend on snow melt will diminish or disappear.
Our prairie pothole region is at risk - the duck factory of North America. The extent of semi-permanent and seasonal wetlands is likely to be reduced by increases in evaporation and reduced summer moisture. (For the latest on this from the peer-reviewed journal BIOSCIENCE, download the article HERE >>)
Forests:
Although few forests birds in our region are considered highly vulnerable, the Black Swift stands out. This bird nests behind waterfalls, and a reduction in glacial ice melt or overall streamflow will likely reduce the protection such nest location confers. Additionally, these birds have low reproduction and are highly insectivorous. A decoupling of insect availability from their migratory and breeding patterns is a troubling prospect. Read more below.
Aridlands
The major predicted effects of climate change on all types of aridlands suggest that they will become warmer and drier. A major concern then becomes the ability of invasive weeds like cheat grass to take hold, affecting dry sagebrush areas. The Greater Sage-Grouse is considered vulnerable.
Questions, ideas, concerns? Interested in a slide show for your group? Contact Amy CilimburgMontana Audubon's Director of Bird Conservation. 406-465-1141