Bird tables and mild winters change the migration patterns of European Blackcaps

[the tree]

Channel 4 News article.

European Blackcaps have evolved different-shaped wings and beaks after changing their migratory course in favour of food on British garden bird tables.

It's worth watching the video on that article as well, the [acr=Royal Society For the Protection of Brids]RSPB[/acr] spokesperson clarifies that the feeding tables are secondary and it's a change in climate that caused the initial change in this behaviour and that bird tables may have caused further changes in the birds physiology. The really interesting thing is that because of the different distances between Germany and Britain versus Germany and Spain mean that the two groups of Blackcaps now have a different mating season which could allow for greater genetic drift and two different species could eventually emerge (the spokesperson says thousands of years but considering these noticeable changes have happened over decades, could it be quicker than that?)

 

Of course the positive news here is the suggestion that many animals will be able to adapt to climate change and rather than mass extinctions across the board there could be exciting new species evolving to cope with different conditions. The overall population of blackcaps is increasing and now maybe diverging into separate populations so what do you think that might mean for biodiversity in general?

[Mr Skeptic]

Earth has gone through warming and cooling cycles, so there probably are some adaptations for that which still haven't been completely removed by natural selection. The warming may kill off some species, but from what I understand the big problem is the speed of the change, rather than the change itself.

 

Plants can't run though.

[the tree]

Some plants might adapt in time, or more likely some currently obscure plants will become common. I'd be interested to see how evolution copes with the rate of change - much more catastrophic events have happened in the past and caused completely new genera to become dominant. With climate change it's pretty fast but not fast on the scale of a massive asteroid ruining everything so I think that we'll see more adaptations within the established species. Migratory birds might have an edge over others since they can, as this has shown, pick another place with a more suited environment.