Adapting to Climate Change: Trends and Severe Storm Responses by Migratory Landbirds and Their Habitats

Over two-thirds of all landbirds (i.e. birds that spend the majority of their lives in terrestrial environments) in North America migrate long-distances to areas in Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean islands. Habitats within Texas and Louisiana support high numbers of birds when they interrupt their migratory journeys through the Gulf of Mexico region to “stopover” for resting and refueling. These stopover habitats are often in areas experiencing human population growth and are impacted by natural disturbances and climate change. Predicted habitat loss from sea level rise and extreme weather events coupled with mismatches in the timing of peak bird migration and peak food abundance may limit the availability of quality stopover habitats. With landbird population decline already occurring across North America, there is an urgency for the conservation of stopover areas to support migrating landbirds.  

The objective of this project is to determine how stopover habitat use by migrating landbirds changes in response to climate change, land cover change, and short term weather events (i.e., tropical storms, droughts, hurricanes). Researchers will analyze data from 25-years of weather surveillance radar observations of birds departing stopover habitats to measure the responses of migrants to climate change. The team will then predict bird responses under various climate scenarios and provide maps to visualize where birds stopover and how their stopover distributions change in response to past and future habitat changes. Finally, the project will map landbird stopover distributions across the entirety of Texas and Louisiana to inform current and future habitat acquisition, restoration, and conservation efforts.  

The resulting decision support tool will assist resource managers in addressing: 1) declines of migratory bird populations linked to changes in availability of stopover habitat and 2) how climate change may impact landbird populations.