ABOVE: Long-lived tropical bird species such as the indigo flycatcher (Eumyias indigo) reduce their reproduction rate during a drought and up their chances of survival, a study finds.
THOMAS MARTIN
The paper
T.E. Martin, J.C. Mouton, “Longer-lived tropical songbirds reduce breeding activity as they buffer impacts of drought,” Nat Clim Change, doi:10.1038/s41558-020-0864-3, 2020.
Thomas Martin was studying parenting behavior among wild birds in Venezuela when a drought hit in 2008. In one species, the gray-breasted wood wren (Henicorhina leucophrys), the number of active nests in his team’s study area declined from 65 in 2007 to just 7 during the drought, the University of Montana wildlife biologist says.
Reproduction comes at a cost, because animals must expend energy producing and caring for their young, so Martin wondered what effect this temporary drop in reproduction might have on the adult birds’ survival rates. To find out, he set up another experiment in 2009, ...
