Could this blackbird give us an important heads up?
It always amazes me when I see a bird preen itself, build a complicated nest or simply arrive for the summer after navigating jungles, deserts and oceans... Who teaches them all that? The pre-programmed stuff, I mean. Of course, some say God and that’s that, but as a ex-scientist who also gets the whole God thing, I lean more towards instinct.
When you look up the word it says that it’s ‘an innate, typically fixed pattern of behaviour in animals in response to certain stimuli.’
What stimuli? I hear you say...
Well, that depends. If it’s preening, it might be that the bird is too cold or too hot and somehow knows to rearrange its feathers and perhaps use an oil gland to smear them with another layer of protection. If it’s when to nest, it might be when there is a plentiful supply of food. Caterpillars, for example, might be more abundant in certain years than others and at different times, which may effect the bird’s nest-building timetable.
As our climate changes, these imbued abilities might need to track the evolving environment. Research is already showing that some birds are performing better at adapting to changes in external stimuli than others.
Some species of bird are now nesting about 30 days sooner than they did in the 1960’s, the blackbird being a good example; while others are sticking to their guns...? Is this natural selection at work? Will...or indeed, has climate change always been a big factor in natural selection. Because the climate has always changed on earth. We might not be helping just now but in the past, volcanoes and asteroids had dramatic effects on that big, complex, delicately balanced ecosystem that is our planet. Ask a dinosaur, if you don’t believe me. Oh, no, you can’t because they’re extinct. See!
Is instinct something that changes and adapts too...somehow..?
Well, there is already proof that birds are changing their migratory routes due to warming temperatures in Europe. These routes are thought to be instinctive, inherited genetically...and the timing of these journeys seems to be shifting.
This is worth watching, as pests that damage our food sources are often controlled by birds. The birds need to be here at the right time. Birds also clean up. They scavenge on the dead, removing foul-smelling carcasses before rats and other possible vectors of disease encroach. Birds also help with the pollination and general reproduction of many plants, including some of the fruits that we enjoy so much.
One upside, is that more people watch birds these days than shoot them, so at least when the birds do arrive, we don’t blast them out of the sky any more.
In my opinion, birds are worth watching, and not just for their obvious beauty. They may also act as a natural barometer that could give us an important heads up…