Climate change is shrinking many Amazonian birds
Decades of data finds shows tropical birds are evolving longer wings and smaller bodies.
The Amazon rainforest is as pristine a place as most people can imagine, but even there, the effects of a changing climate are playing out. Now, research suggests that many of the region’s most sensitive bird species are starting to evolve in response to warming.
Birds are often considered sentinel species—meaning that they indicate the overall health of an ecosystem—so scientists are particularly interested in how they’re responding to climate change. In general, the news has not been good. For instance, a 2019 report by the National Audubon Society found that more than two-thirds of North America’s bird species will be vulnerable to extinction by 2100 if warming trends continue on their current
