Study the effect of climate change on the breeding behavior of Eurasian dipper through a banding technique used by an ornithologist in Ireland
Study the effect of climate change on the breeding behavior of Eurasian dipper through a banding technique used by an ornithologist in Ireland
A Eurasian dipper (Cinclus cinclus) being banded (ringed) by an ornithologist in Ireland.
University College Cork, Ireland (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Transcript
We're about to visit a nest site, where birds certainly had hatched this day last week, and its been about 1-day-old. What's interesting about these birds is they nest very early.
They hatched 8 days ago. There's 4 eggs, and the average population lays its eggs on Patrick's Day, the 17th or 18th of March, and we've been monitoring the timing of breeding for those species over the period.
The reason we're doing that is because we know that these birds respond to climate change. This is the only species in Ireland, where we have sufficient data on its breeding biology to show a climate change effect.
And you know, what is that effect? That effect means that these birds are laying their eggs earlier, and the chicks are hatching earlier than they would have 20 years ago.
The reason for that is that the birds are matching the food supply that's available in the river, so they can feed their young at the time when most food is available. So birds have to synchronize their feeding with the food supply.
So as the food supply has shifted in response to climate change-- in particular, the warming temperatures of the recent decade-- then the birds' food supply shifts, and these birds respond to it.
We call this phenotypic plasticity. So the birds are plastic or flexible enough to respond to that short term of change. Clearly, if things get really tough, and the shift is so great that actually the birds would not be able to respond, therefore, they can either become extinct, or they evolve. And the evolution would mean that they lay even earlier.
Some years ago, we had the extraordinary situation on the University College Cork campus, where a blackbird laid its eggs in December. It was a freak event, in some sense, but obviously, that's the way evolution actually works. You get a single individual or a small population responding slightly differently, and then suddenly, the whole population shifts.
So as climate change starts to kick in, it's possible that you will get a shift in the timing of breeding of these species. So what we've been doing, for the last 20 years, is visiting and looking at about 60 nest sites in the Cork area.
So from West Cork-- is where we're going to, today-- near Carrigrohane to North Cork, near the Ireland Valley in Fermoy to West Waterford, East Cork, near Youghal, into the various rivers, where we visit these birds at their nests.
We examine the nests when they lay their first eggs. Under license, we capture the birds. We ring them, give them a unique ring-- which has got a unique code on it-- and then we can measure each chick, and we can start to track its life history.
Ah, he's a beauty, isn't he? Probably get a haircut like that. Is the other bird calling? We've been visiting this nest site for over 20 years, so probably four or five generations of dippers, of adult birds, have been in and out of this nest site. They live about 4 or 5-years-old, the adult birds.
See, there's a ring number, and it has an address on it. And you can just simply send this on the address and the ring number, and people will get information of the bird that we've ringed, today-- its weight, and they'll know its age. So it's quite a really useful data set. And that's how, when we recapture these birds at night, we can identify individuals and see how long they live.
It would be unusual for somebody to find a dead dipper, because they, obviously, get washed away in the river, but occasionally, they do turn up-- either by other ringers or people capturing birds. It's 21.1.
And see that big flange, here, is to stimulate the adult, so when she comes in, and she sees that big beak open, she feeds it really well, or he feeds it-- both birds, adults, males and females. You can see, there's no feathers growing yet. But the dark region, here, is where what we call feather tracks are, actually, where the feathers actually, ultimately, grow on the bird.
A big pot belly on him-- absolutely cracker. I want to put him back, now. He's going to start getting cold. I'll put him back with his siblings.
OK. Now, that's it? Good.
They hatched 8 days ago. There's 4 eggs, and the average population lays its eggs on Patrick's Day, the 17th or 18th of March, and we've been monitoring the timing of breeding for those species over the period.
The reason we're doing that is because we know that these birds respond to climate change. This is the only species in Ireland, where we have sufficient data on its breeding biology to show a climate change effect.
And you know, what is that effect? That effect means that these birds are laying their eggs earlier, and the chicks are hatching earlier than they would have 20 years ago.
The reason for that is that the birds are matching the food supply that's available in the river, so they can feed their young at the time when most food is available. So birds have to synchronize their feeding with the food supply.
So as the food supply has shifted in response to climate change-- in particular, the warming temperatures of the recent decade-- then the birds' food supply shifts, and these birds respond to it.
We call this phenotypic plasticity. So the birds are plastic or flexible enough to respond to that short term of change. Clearly, if things get really tough, and the shift is so great that actually the birds would not be able to respond, therefore, they can either become extinct, or they evolve. And the evolution would mean that they lay even earlier.
Some years ago, we had the extraordinary situation on the University College Cork campus, where a blackbird laid its eggs in December. It was a freak event, in some sense, but obviously, that's the way evolution actually works. You get a single individual or a small population responding slightly differently, and then suddenly, the whole population shifts.
So as climate change starts to kick in, it's possible that you will get a shift in the timing of breeding of these species. So what we've been doing, for the last 20 years, is visiting and looking at about 60 nest sites in the Cork area.
So from West Cork-- is where we're going to, today-- near Carrigrohane to North Cork, near the Ireland Valley in Fermoy to West Waterford, East Cork, near Youghal, into the various rivers, where we visit these birds at their nests.
We examine the nests when they lay their first eggs. Under license, we capture the birds. We ring them, give them a unique ring-- which has got a unique code on it-- and then we can measure each chick, and we can start to track its life history.
Ah, he's a beauty, isn't he? Probably get a haircut like that. Is the other bird calling? We've been visiting this nest site for over 20 years, so probably four or five generations of dippers, of adult birds, have been in and out of this nest site. They live about 4 or 5-years-old, the adult birds.
See, there's a ring number, and it has an address on it. And you can just simply send this on the address and the ring number, and people will get information of the bird that we've ringed, today-- its weight, and they'll know its age. So it's quite a really useful data set. And that's how, when we recapture these birds at night, we can identify individuals and see how long they live.
It would be unusual for somebody to find a dead dipper, because they, obviously, get washed away in the river, but occasionally, they do turn up-- either by other ringers or people capturing birds. It's 21.1.
And see that big flange, here, is to stimulate the adult, so when she comes in, and she sees that big beak open, she feeds it really well, or he feeds it-- both birds, adults, males and females. You can see, there's no feathers growing yet. But the dark region, here, is where what we call feather tracks are, actually, where the feathers actually, ultimately, grow on the bird.
A big pot belly on him-- absolutely cracker. I want to put him back, now. He's going to start getting cold. I'll put him back with his siblings.
OK. Now, that's it? Good.