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

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Episoder(26)

Okay, but... boobies!

E25. The blue-footed booby has become an internet personality: cartoon feet, a goofy strut, a name that practically begs to be a punchline. But Scott sat down with Dr. Carlos Zavalaga, Universidad Cie...

4 Jun 34min

Okay, but what about birds that can't fly?

E24. Flight is the thing we associate most with birds, so what does it mean when a lineage gives it up? Dr. Scott Edwards, Harvard, joins Scott to unpack how flightlessness evolves, why it keeps happe...

28 Mai 32min

Okay, but can a bird really cooperate with humans?

E23. Across sub-Saharan Africa, wild birds and people work together to find honey. No taming, no breeding, no domestication… just a partnership thousands of years in the making. Behavioral ecologist D...

21 Mai 33min

Okay, but can birds predict the weather?

E22. Folklore says birds know a storm is coming before we do. Scott talks with Dr. Gunnar Kramer, Iowa State University, about what's actually happening when a tiny warbler decides it's time to fly, o...

14 Mai 34min

Okay, but can birds smell?

E21. We're talking sense and scents with Dr. Danielle Whittaker, Oregon State, and author of The Secret Perfume of Birds, who spent a decade unraveling a 200-year-old myth that started with John James...

7 Mai 34min

Okay, but what can we learn from a drawer of birds?

E20. Less than 1% of what's in a museum is actually on display. So what's happening with the other 99%? Scott talks with Dr. Sushma Reddy, Breckenridge Chair of Ornithology at the Bell Museum and Asso...

23 Apr 35min

Okay, but are bird feeders helping or hurting?

E19. More than 55 million Americans feed birds, and it's not exactly clear the birds asked us to. Dr. Olivia Sanderfoot, Research Scientist and Project Leader of FeederWatch at the Cornell Lab of Orni...

16 Apr 32min

Okay, but what's in a bird's toolbox?

E18. Turns out "bird brain" is less of an insult and more of a compliment. Scott sits down with Dr. Alex Kacelnik, Emeritus Professor at the University of Oxford, to dig into one of the most mind-bend...

9 Apr 32min