Hurricanes and Heatwaves: How Does Extreme Weather Affect Birds?

This episode—which is Number 72—is about what happens to birds, not just in bad weather, but in really bad weather. We’re talking hurricanes, floods, droughts, heat waves, tornadoes, maybe even the occasional sharknado, and so on.

How do birds deal with all these natural disasters? We’ll get into that.

We'll be talking mostly about the more immediate effects of storms and other extreme weather on the survival of individual birds and their populations.

Birds are tough little buggers. They’re tougher than they might look. Many of them live long lives in the face of continual challenges like predators, aggressive rivals, wild temperature swings, strong wind, and heavy precipitation. 

But an extreme weather event can often be the ultimate test of survival for a bird.

 Links of Interest

• The Southwest Is Facing an ‘Unprecedented’ Migratory Bird Die-Off
• Where Do Birds Go In A Hurricane?
  
  

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Link to this episode on the Science of Birds website 

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