Breeding Schedules of Burrowing Owls in Idaho: Have Nest Initiation Dates Changed with an Evolving Climate?
Additional Funding Sources
This research, conducted at the Raptor Research Experiences for Undergraduates site, was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DBI-1852133 and by Boise State University.
Abstract
Climate change is causing bird distributions to change, shifts in migration times, and a mismatch between the behavior of some birds and their primary prey. In certain species, migration distances are predicted to increase by thousands of kilometers, whereas in others migration distances may diminish. Another prominent effect on birds is earlier breeding; clutch initiation dates have advanced by almost a month in some species of raptors. Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia) are a species of conservation concern in North America in which weather affects reproductive biology. For example, extreme rainfall events substantially reduce Burrowing Owl productivity. Understanding the potential effects of a changing climate on Burrowing Owls is therefore important for conservation and management of this species. We made use of long-term data (1997 – 2019) collected from Burrowing Owls breeding in the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area (NCA) to explore temporal changes in breeding phenology and analyze how annual variability in weather influenced clutch initiation dates. We also investigated how climate change effects differed between human-modified agricultural lands and more natural shrub-steppe areas, as Burrowing Owls breed in both types of environments in the NCA.
Breeding Schedules of Burrowing Owls in Idaho: Have Nest Initiation Dates Changed with an Evolving Climate?
Climate change is causing bird distributions to change, shifts in migration times, and a mismatch between the behavior of some birds and their primary prey. In certain species, migration distances are predicted to increase by thousands of kilometers, whereas in others migration distances may diminish. Another prominent effect on birds is earlier breeding; clutch initiation dates have advanced by almost a month in some species of raptors. Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia) are a species of conservation concern in North America in which weather affects reproductive biology. For example, extreme rainfall events substantially reduce Burrowing Owl productivity. Understanding the potential effects of a changing climate on Burrowing Owls is therefore important for conservation and management of this species. We made use of long-term data (1997 – 2019) collected from Burrowing Owls breeding in the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area (NCA) to explore temporal changes in breeding phenology and analyze how annual variability in weather influenced clutch initiation dates. We also investigated how climate change effects differed between human-modified agricultural lands and more natural shrub-steppe areas, as Burrowing Owls breed in both types of environments in the NCA.
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