Okay, but can birds keep up with climate change?

E10. Seasons used to feel predictable. Winter showed up, spring arrived on cue, and birds could run their annual schedules like clockwork. But now the timing is weird: early heat, late snow, shifting green-up, and food peaks that don’t always line up. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Morgan Tingley, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA, to unpack what “keeping up” with climate change actually means for birds, how scientists measure it, and what gives birds a fighting chance on a rapidly warming planet. In this episode, you’ll hear about: How birds “keep up” by shifting their ranges to cooler places, and the clearest real-world examples of birds already moving north Why the story is more complicated than “north and uphill,” including microclimates, precipitation shifts, and the messy reality of predicting habitat changes The full bird toolkit for coping with climate change: movement, timing (phenology), and even shrinking body size over generations, plus what we can do right now that actually helps birds All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Northern Cardinal audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML249823 Carolina Wren audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML191224 Red-bellied Woodpecker audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML306064 Orange-crowned Warbler audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML206459 Orange-crowned Warbler video contributed by Timothy Barksdale, ML402530 House Finch audio contributed by William R. Fish, ML12932