Not only that, they also gain weight, improving fertility from changes in wind speed.
Wind speeds in Antarctic waters have increased over the past three decades and high winds have forced the region’s birds to fly faster, according to a new study by French experts in the journal Science. The change in wind speed is linked to climate change, and the latest impact of this process is, at the moment, considered to be quite positive for many birds. Their feeding distance is shortened, fertility is improved, and many birds even gain an average of over 1 kg in about 30 years.
The subject of their study is large seagulls, birds that spend most of their time in flight and simply perch on the ground in search of food or to breed. The windy islands of Antarctica Crozet have been their home for many years. The team believe other birds, such as the black gull, are also affected by the change such as the great wild gull. The group of Henri Weimerskirch, of the Biological Research Center of Chize (France), chose the Crozet Islands to study because it recorded all the parameters over the years, from climate to bird communities.
Weimerskirch and his colleagues have analyzed information for 40 years about the large population of seagulls in Crozet. Since 1989, they have started installing satellite transmitters to closely monitor the flight path of birds here. For example, the Weimerskirch team determined that westerly winds in the Antarctic Sea have increased on average by 15 percent over the past decades. As a result, the flight path of the great albatross widened. If the hen flew at an average speed of 500 km / day in 1990, this number rose to 700 km / day in 2010.
Birds appear to be benefiting from changes in wind speeds right now, but this positive effect could only be short-lived if the winds in the Antarctic Sea follow the scientific path of speculation. Based on computer models, Weimerskirch said the wind would get stronger and the wind reversal in the polar direction would be stronger. This could put pressure on bird communities in the region, altering their foraging routes.
