Swallows may be evolving to dodge traffic

[n2doc]

by Beth Marie Mole

Roadside-nesting cliff swallows have evolved shorter, more manoeuvrable wings, which may have helped them to make hasty retreats from oncoming vehicles, according to a study published in Current Biology1.

The study’s authors discovered the trend after noticing that the number of vehicle-killed birds had declined over the past three decades. They suggest that the two findings provide evidence of roadway-related adaptation.

“I’m not saying that it’s all because of wing length,” says Charles Brown, a biologist at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma and one of the authors of the study. But, he says, the shortening does support the idea that the birds are adapting to disturbed environments, as other organisms presumably are.

Together with Mary Bomberger Brown, a ornithologist at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Brown tracked roadside populations of cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) in western Nebraska for 30 years, mostly to study the birds social behaviors within their colonies.

more
http://www.nature.com/news/swallows-may-be-evolving-to-dodge-traffic-1.12614

[fizzgig]

1. the swallows here are very adept at dodging traffic

i always cringe when i see them swooping around busy intersections, but i've never seen one get hit

[Bay Boy]

2. About fricking time...

...if they would just teach the red-wing blackbirds along my morning commute. They keep flying at radiator level and I pick off one every couple weeks or so. I keep yelling at them "You have the power of flight! Fly higher for Gawd's sake!"