Birds Not Following Changing Cimate Fast Enough, Researchers Report

Birds are shifting their ranges in response to climate change but not fast enough, concludes a study that warns that some species will find it harder to cope as a result.

Range shifts of many species are now a well documented response to global warming. But whether these observed changes are occurring fast enough remains uncertain.

Now a pioneering study has been carried out in France on local birds by Dr Vincent Devictor of the Universite' Montpellier II, Romain Julliard and Denis Couvet of the Museum of Natural History, along with Fre'de'ric Jiguet of the European Bird Census Council, Paris.

Over the past two decades they found that a 50 mile northward shift in bird communities, using data on more than 100 species reported by hundreds of volunteer birdwatchers.

However the zone where the temperature range is the same as two decades ago had shifted by 170 miles, so the birds are lagging approximately 120 miles behind.
 
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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk