New study makes startling discoveries after studying birds' feathers: 'It's a slower and more meandering process'
A recent University of Utah study found that birds are molting at earlier dates. The underlying reason? Our planet's warming.
Researchers used 13 years' worth of data on 134 bird species to come to their conclusion. They studied molting patterns from 2011 to 2024 and found that fall migratory birds consistently molted a day earlier than in the previous year.
Molting is a crucial precursor to migration and, consequently, breeding. Old feathers could negatively impact both their flight and mating capabilities, Kyle Kittelberger, research team lead, told Phys.org.
Spring migratory birds, however, were a different story. "We didn't see any shift at the community level for spring body molt," Kittelberger said. "Some of the reasons for that might be birds tend to migrate much faster in the spring … whereas in the fall, it's a slower and more meandering process."
The specific reason isn't entirely clear yet. Kittelberger suggests that earlier breeding or later migration times — both of which result from the warming planet — are viable options.
If molting overlaps with either breeding or migration, it could sap birds' energy, damaging species' survival in the long run. If that is the case here, it could spell bad news for migratory birds — and humans.
Different bird species provide different benefits to humanity. Take hummingbirds, for example. Most hummingbird species migrate and are excellent pollinators. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, about 35% of the entire world's food supply depends on pollinators to reproduce. The extinction of hummingbird species will globally jeopardize human food supplies.
And that's just one example out of many. On the whole, every bird plays a part in their local ecosystem, spreading seeds, scavenging carcasses, and keeping pests at bay. Without them, the world will be thrown out of balance.
Kittelberger already has the next steps in mind. He told Phys.org that he plans to research birds in their breeding and/or post-breeding grounds. "That is the next element of this kind of research," he said, "to not only look at what's going on in the summer when they're beginning to molt but to see if that overlaps with anything like breeding."
If you'd like to help on an individual level, there are a couple of things you can do. Converting just a portion of your yard to a native lawn can give pollinators, like hummingbirds, crucial food sources. You can also consider donating to climate causes that research birds and conserve their habitats, like the National Audubon Society.
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While previous research has been mixed when it comes to favoritism and gender, this study found that 'daughters tend to be favored, and that was across the board,' Jensen said. Both mothers and fathers tended to show differential treatment for daughters. Not surprisingly, 'agreeable or conscientious children tend to be favored. That's also across the board,' Jensen said. When it came to birth order, it was also no surprise to see that parents tended to grant first-born children more freedom and autonomy — these children are, after all, older than their siblings by definition. But this favoritism persisted into adulthood, Jensen said, well past the point when a parent would worry about a child's ability to, say, go to the store on their own. It's possible thatsome patterns, like relying on the competence of an eldest daughter, begin in childhood and continue throughout adulthood. 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Original story reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent publication of the Simons Foundation whose mission is to enhance public understanding of science by covering research developments and trends in mathematics and the physical and life sciences.
