Florida critical for bird species’ future

As global warming threatens the survival of nearly half the bird species in North America, Florida will play an increasingly important role in conserving them, a new study by scientists with the National Audubon Society show finds.

The Audubon Birds and Climate report, released Tuesday, shows that more than half of the 588 continental birds species examined in the seven-year study are likely to be in trouble because of climate change. The report classifies 314 species as “at risk” with 126 species expected to face severe population declines by 2050 and another 188 species to be in serious jeopardy by 2080. If global warming continues at its current rate, the report says, species are in danger of extinction.

Among the Florida birds at risk are well-known species such as the roseate spoonbill, swallow-tailed kite, bald eagle and wood stork.

As habitat is altered, Florida will become even more of a Mecca for threatened species, said Julie Wraithmell, Audubon Florida director of wildlife conservation.

“The model says Florida is going to be critical to the continent’s birds,” she said. “We already are a kind of Grand Central Station for the hemisphere’s birds and that is going to only become more critical as the climate shifts and changes.”

Audubon scientists used data from three decades of bird surveys to determine the range of temperatures, precipitation and seasonal changes each species needs to survive. Then, using greenhouse gas emissions scenarios, they mapped where each bird’s ideal climatic range may be found in the future as the climate changes.

Wraithmell said the study is particularly sobering because its findings don’t take into account other habitat impacts such as sea level rise, the availability to find prey and land-use changes.

The state in the past has made strides in preserving and protecting areas critical for wildlife, she said, but that enthusiasm has waned in recent years. She said the people of the state have an opportunity to reassert that commitment at the polls this November with a “yes” vote on Amendment 1, which would devote money from Florida’s documentary stamp fees on real estate transactions for conservation land purchases.

“In many ways the model is conservative,” Wraithmell said. “It is a call to action for us here in Florida.”