Birds beak shape changed in what might be a case of rapid evolution; plus hurricanes in January and cold dips across the East

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Dark-eyed, junko songbirds are known for being a hardy winter bird showing up after a fresh

snow to farage for food.

After times of the year, they'll peck through leaf litter to find tiny morsels.

Well, junkos are not usually found in cities, but that does seem to be changing, as the

climate crisis affected their mountain forest habitats.

Well, they've started taking up residents in more urban settings, such as Los Angeles.

Now, that gave researchers at UCLA an opportunity to study the birds, and they started to notice

something very interesting.

The city-dwelling birds have shorter and stubbier beaks, a stark contrast, from the long

beaks their mountain counterparts used to eat seeds and insects.

But as the researchers looked over data on the birds that have resided on the UCLA campus

in recent years, they noticed something odd.

Junkos that hatched in 2021 and 2022 after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic had longer

beaks, similar to those seen on the mountain birds.

But as pandemic restrictions eased on campus and students returned to classes, the city-bird

traits returned and the beaks of the birds hatched in 2023 and 2024 were shortened once

again.

What are the researchers pointed out that evolution is often thought to be a slow process, but

when they did a year-by-year comparison, they were amazed at how stark and how quick

the change was.

Now they postulate that compared with the longer beaked mountain dwelling birds, the shorter

beaks on campus birds, might be better suited for a wider range diet of human food scraps.

But in 2020, when classes first went online and dining halls closed, the beaks of newborn

birds evolved back to their longer state, fitted for their natural diets.

Now the study highlights the effects that humans can have on wildlife and shows how

fast evolution can occur for animals needing to adapt to their surroundings.

One of the co-authors of the research paper said that humans and nature are really quite

interconnected, and we are very much a part of the ecosystem.

The researchers did pump the brakes a little bit on their own findings, suggesting that

evolution is the primary hypothesis, but there are other explanations that need to be ruled

out, such as gene flow, when individuals from elsewhere, such as the mountain birds

enter the population.

However, the authors said they don't think that scenario is likely, since the birds did

not show any behavioral changes.

The authors are working on obtaining genetic information from the bird's blood, so they

can pinpoint whether the beaked changes are a result of genetic changes.

But for now, the study and preliminary findings of junkos evolving in an urban setting and

the ability to live with humans might bring a more hopeful message.

One of the researchers said we're causing a lot of harm on a global level.

The junkos are declining as a whole, but they're doing quite well in cities, and seeing how

populations manage to keep up, despite what we view as these bad odds, I think brings

a lot of hope that if they can do it and it can surprise us, maybe other organisms

can too.

We're more than a month removed from hurricane season, and while there are no hurricanes

on the horizon, it's not unheard of that a hurricane could swirl up in January.

In fact, it happened just 10 years ago.

In January 2016, Hurricane Alex became the first Atlantic hurricane to form in January

since 1938, and the first Atlantic hurricane to occur in January since 1955, when Hurricane

Alice developed.

Now, it is an unusual event.

In addition to those hurricanes, only four tropical or subtropical storms have been named

in the Atlantic during January since 1900.

Before becoming a hurricane, Alex made the transition from a non-tropical storm to a

subtropical storm to a fully developed tropical storm during the middle part of January

2016.

Well, the polar vortex stepping into the U.S. is bringing much colder temperatures this

week with freezing temps as far south as Florida expected.

The weather pattern setting up this week across the northern and eastern U.S. is likely to

continue for the rest of the month.

A southward dip in the jet stream will allow persistent waves of cold and snow to push into

the Great Lakes and the northeast.

Snow could accumulate as far south as the Appalachians of North Carolina and Tennessee.

While the snowy weather is unlikely to reach the Gulf Coast states, the weather pattern will

bring a more persistent chill into at least early next week.

That's all for now.

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