Tropical bird numbers plummet due to more days of extreme heat, study finds

Tropical bird populations are crashing as temperatures soar. That’s according to a new study that found abundances of tropical birds were 25-38% lower than they would be without human-driven climate change and the rising temperatures it has caused. This temperature impact on birds is greater than declines attributed to deforestation. “It’s a staggering decrease. Birds are particularly sensitive to dehydration and heat stress,” lead author Maximilian Kotz, a researcher at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, said in a statement. “Extreme heat drives excess mortality, reduced fertility, changing breeding behaviors and reduced offspring survival.” The authors fed decades of bird data into computational models to estimate the impact climate change has had on tropical bird populations, particul