Birds of different feathers didn't flock together during lockdown

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-09-21 09:01

International

Photo by David Knox on Unsplash

Most bird species changed their behaviours as human mobility decreased during UK's COVID-19 lockdown, according to international research. Comparing Google Maps data with nearly 900,000 bird observations, the researchers say bird counts changed for 20 out of 25 bird species studied. Different birds changed their behaviour in different ways, the researchers say, with some birds like gulls and buzzards spending more time at parks when humans spent more time at parks while tits and sparrows reduced in numbers. Humans staying at home more and reducing visits to grocery stores also impacted the number of birds around, the researchers say.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Avian behaviour changes in response to human activity during the COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Birds interact with humans in complex ways, and during the COVID-19 pandemic lock-downs human activity drastically changed. In the United Kingdom, humans stayed at home more, went out shopping less, and some parks and recreational areas saw increases in human visitors. Using Google human mobility data and 872 850 bird observations, we determined that this sudden change in human movement and activity affected the habitat use of many birds, and impacts on birds depended on where humans changed their activity, such as at home, parks or essentially supply retailers, and the time scale (i.e. short-term versus long-term) of the disturbance.

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Research The Royal Society, Web page The URL will go live after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Manitoba, Canada

Funder: This study was funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Alliance COVID-19 grant program (grant no. ALLRP 550721 - 20).

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