DAY 266: BERRYPECKER - GOING HIGHER UP THE MOUNTAIN

Many tropical mountain birds, like this Berrypecker, are shifting their ranges upslope to escape warming temperatures that disrupt their way of life, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

But there’s only so much room on these mountains. Climate change predictions suggest that before the end of this century, global warming will push at least four of these species into localized extinctions.  Research demonstrates that no matter where you are on earth, even a tropical wilderness island in the South Pacific, climate change is happening and having tangible impacts.

In this case, the activities of industrialized nations causing climate change are impacting birds in remote New Guinea, deep in tropical mountain forests, causing them to move up the slopes to find their preferred habitat.

We always hear about polar bears being affected by large temperature changes in the Arctic, but many tropical birds are attuned to small microclimates, and so they are just as much affected by the smaller-scale change happening in tropical climates, and because a mountain is like a pyramid, there’s less area for habitat available as they move up the mountain. They’re being squeezed both by temperatures and for space.