• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Effect of hurricanes on bird populations (1 Viewer)

Mark Newsome

Mark Newsome

Born to seawatch...
With the devastaing hurricanes currently hitting the Caribbean, what is the likely effect on the bird populations, particularly landbirds on some of the smaller islands? The news has terrible images of the destruction on Barbuda, and Antigua/Barbuda holds its own endemic warbler: Barbuda Warbler (Setophaga subita). The destruction of habitat alone could possibly cause its rapid exinction, but what about the birds themselves? How would a small landbird react to the onset of 250kmh winds? I guess no-one ever witnesses behaviour but have there been other instances of population decimation/extinction following such a short spell of adverse weather?

Mark
 
Cozumel Thrasher - widely believed to be an extinction driven by hurricane; probably final nail in the coffin rahter than primary cause. Luckily Barbuda warbler is a bird of trash habbo, so populations should bounce right back.

edit: 2009 image

cheers, alan
 

Attachments

  • barbuda warbler0090127054538 (1).JPG
    barbuda warbler0090127054538 (1).JPG
    18.2 KB · Views: 155
Last edited:
I'd guess every Caribbean island endemic species has been through many hurricanes over the millennia, so will have survival strategies to cope - except where there is additional human-caused problems like Lewis hints with the Cozumel Thrasher.

Also wonder if it might make it possible for non-migratory island endemics to colonise new islands?
 
lewis20126 said:
Cozumel Thrasher - widely believed to be an extinction driven by hurricane; probably final nail in the coffin rahter than primary cause. Luckily Barbuda warbler is a bird of trash habbo, so populations should bounce right back.

edit: 2009 image

cheers, alan
Click to expand...

That is, assuming enough individual warblers survived the winds that they will constitute a sustainable population.

I was on Montserrat a few years ago - that island almost lost its entire population of the endemic oriole through a combination of circumstances (hurricane damage followed by a volcanic eruption, talk about a brutal one-two to the jaw!) about two decades before my visit.

So, it is conceivable that a species could be obliterated by one natural disaster, if the population is already very low, and range-restricted.
 
IIRC, tropical storm damage was also a mitigating factor in the extinction of at least one Hawaiian songbird, although again, this was because other conservation threats had reduced it to a very small population in one forest.
 
Peter C. said:
I was on Montserrat a few years ago - that island almost lost its entire population of the endemic oriole through a combination of circumstances (hurricane damage followed by a volcanic eruption, talk about a brutal one-two to the jaw!) about two decades before my visit.
Click to expand...
But there again, the area of suitable forested habitat had already been massively reduced by human activity. If that hadn't happened first, neither the hurricane nor the volcano would have done anything like as much damage to the population.
 
What about Kirtland's Warbler? Would this be staging in Florida currently on the way to wintering grounds in the Bahamas? All these areas look to be severly impacted by Irma.
 
Captain_of_Crunch said:
What about Kirtland's Warbler? Would this be staging in Florida currently on the way to wintering grounds in the Bahamas? All these areas look to be severly impacted by Irma.
Click to expand...

I think in Eleuthera (eg), they winter in quite low coastal scrub and are quite terrestrial; never seen them though.

cheers, a
 
lewis20126 said:
I think in Eleuthera (eg), they winter in quite low coastal scrub and are quite terrestrial; never seen them though.
Click to expand...

I imagine some of these, especially terrestrial, birds can actually survive better than we assume - if the habitat is not destroyed, I would imagine the number of birds killed is relatively minimal.

I travelled to coastal regions of Mozambique when a major cyclone hit. Whilst it was not on the scale of Irma, I did see roofs disappearing, a petrol station losing its top and etc. Elsewhere, some roads vanished and bridge collapsed due to rain - only saw this when trying to leave though.

However, on the coast, having a desire to see if seabirds were being blown around, I remember wrapping myself around a palm tree and struggling to not get blown into the Central African Republic or something similar. But in all this, as both Greater and Lesser Frigatebirds were indeed blown in, there were small birds right down on the ground, huddling in the lea of roots, at the edge of rocks and stuff.

I may be wrong, but the possibilities for small passerines in particular to find shelter would seem a fall easier option than for stuff like herons, egrets, etc - never really managed to understand how these survive.
 
Captain_of_Crunch said:
What about Kirtland's Warbler? Would this be staging in Florida currently on the way to wintering grounds in the Bahamas? All these areas look to be severly impacted by Irma.
Click to expand...

I'd be surprised if they're that far south yet. Given their love for Jack Pine, my prediction is they'll be in woods of its close relative Scrub Pine Pinus virginiana in the foothills of the Appalachians somewhere.
 
Jos Stratford said:
...However, on the coast, having a desire to see if seabirds were being blown around, I remember wrapping myself around a palm tree and struggling to not get blown into the Central African Republic or something similar. But in all this, as both Greater and Lesser Frigatebirds were indeed blown in, there were small birds right down on the ground, huddling in the lea of roots, at the edge of rocks and stuff.

I may be wrong, but the possibilities for small passerines in particular to find shelter would seem a fall easier option than for stuff like herons, egrets, etc - never really managed to understand how these survive.
Click to expand...

It's hard to believe how something weighing a few grams can survive such wind strengths but that may be their saviour like you say; far easy to find a very small protected hole in rocks or tree roots for something mouse-sized than for much larger birds. I guess it will be some time before the extent of damage to birdlife is known, but fingers crossed.

Mark
 
Mark Newsome said:
It's hard to believe how something weighing a few grams can survive such wind strengths but that may be their saviour like you say; far easy to find a very small protected hole in rocks or tree roots for something mouse-sized than for much larger birds. I guess it will be some time before the extent of damage to birdlife is known, but fingers crossed.

Mark
Click to expand...

Indeed. Heck, my chickens recently survived a direct hit by a tornado to our house, even though they were out of their coop at the time. They knew how and where to find shelter, much sooner than my husband who was outside trying to grab them, only to turn around and see the tornado approaching!

I imagine a few unlucky individuals might perish due to falling debris, but probably habitat destruction has a greater effect than direct mortality.
 
Nutcracker said:
But there again, the area of suitable forested habitat had already been massively reduced by human activity. If that hadn't happened first, neither the hurricane nor the volcano would have done anything like as much damage to the population.
Click to expand...

The above was written in response to the double whammy of hurricane + volcano on Montserrat Oriole. I am not sure that it is actually correct. The hurricane would likely have felled all forest that was not in ravines and similar protected areas (Montserrat is small enough that a major hurricane can do that to the entire island). Those ravines are likely to have been on the sides of the mountain, and those are the areas that would be most devastated due to the volcanic eruption. Obviously, the island being in pristine conditions with no human interaction could have led to increased survival -- but in that particular case I do not feel we can confidently say it would.

The scientific papers and talks I heard a while ago was (from what I remember) centered on leaving original vegetation in several elevations, preferably connected through untouched ravines of the sort I mentioned above. On an island like Dominica or Montserrat, wind speeds are actually a good deal stronger up on the mountain than further down. Therefore, birds perfectly able to survive high up the mountain in normal conditions need the lower more protected areas after the storm hits. They may have been able to go there before the storm, or they may have survived by seeking local shelter as explained by others, but they need the forest remnants in the lower areas and especially in the ravines afterwards. As I recall what I heard, the St. Kits Bullfinch likely disappeared because no forest was left except at the highest elevations and then a hurricane took that out.

Another aspect is: which food is available afterwards? Again, based on my memory, there will usually be insect boom shortly after a hurricane, while flowers may be in short supply and fruits even more so. I visited an area with Cassowary shortly after a storm several years ago. They had to bring in commercial fruit to make the Cassowary survive long enough that the forest had a chance to start bearing fruit again. In that example, there was a strong interaction with human encroachment: this was in a coastal forest remnant. Had the forest been stretching far inland as it would have been thousands of years ago, then there might have been a local extinction but with high probability of recruitment of new animals as the forest regenerated.

Niels
 
Last edited:
Warning! This thread is more than 7 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Similar threads

Fred Ruhe
Bird populations and species lost to Late Quaternary in the Bahamas
Replies
1
Views
586
Melanie
Melanie
H
Guardian Article Bird Vanish England
Replies
6
Views
1K
Sangahyando
S
Maroon Jay
Birds in a Hurricane
Replies
2
Views
1K
Kits
Kits
Tanny
Dr Manjeet Singh's Malasian patch revised
Replies
5
Views
19K
christineredgate
christineredgate

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top