Climate is overheating for thrush

Dr. Lowman’s latest Nature’s Secrets column in newsobserver.com:

North of Stowe, Vt., along some steep mountain trails of Mount Mansfield, is a two-decade-long research site investigating the impacts of climate change on songbirds. Not surprisingly, the ornithologists leading this project have documented birds shifting uphill to escape increasingly warmer temperatures at lower elevations.

Ten years ago, no Swainson’s thrushes nested near the top of Vermont’s tallest mountain; now they are abundant. Project leader Chris Rimmer directs the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, and has dedicated a large portion of his life to researching the Bicknell’s thrush. This rare and threatened species, a relative of the commoner wood thrush, is limited to alpine mountain tops of New England and Canada. Where does an alpine bird living at the top of a mountain go when warmer temperatures force it to seek cooler temperatures? Unfortunately, the Bicknell’s thrush and other mountain-top denizens may face extinction.

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