scienceforbirds

[scienceforbirds]

Birds eat plastic?

Since the 1950s, plastics became the “new best thing” due to its long-lasting durability and cheap production. Every year, 8 million tons of plastic enters our oceans ad is exponentially increasing. This often occurs via sewage systems, beach litter, or wind that carries land plastics to the water, where they often linger for decades to centuries.

You all know of turtles eating plastic bags and getting straws stuck in their noses, or animals that get their necks caught in plastic soda-can rings, but many more organisms are negatively impacted. Birds, another species with close ties to the ocean, are some of the most vulnerable to plastic pollution. Why? Because plastic generally floats in the ocean, which is also where birds tend to reside and feed. This results in a lot of birds eating and getting tangled in a lot of plastic. In turn, plastic exposure can cut their life short or change their reproduction.

What’s worse, we hardly know much about anything in terms of consequences of plastic pollution in the ocean, and we are just now beginning to understand the full scale of it by pinpointing which species are most impacted and going from there. 

For this blog post I will briefly describe a research paper by Chris Wilcox, et al. (2015) on plastic pollution. This paper uses multiple studies to create a model that predicts which bird species are most vulnerable to the effects of plastic pollution. 

The paper used 186 seabird species and determined to what extent each species will likely be exposed to plastic. Then, their predictions were compared to studies done out in the field on the actual stomach contents of birds. Predictions were also made over time to see if birds would have even more exposure to plastics.

Overall, they found that birds are more likely to eat plastic if they’re around it for longer, which is relatively intuitive. Similarly, adding more plastic to the ocean, which is expected to happen and is currently happening over time, will also cause more birds to have plastic in their stomachs due to increased exposure. Specifically, 1.7% more birds will have plastic in their stomachs every year, and 99.8% of birds are expected to have plastic in their stomachs by 2050. While the majority of the 186 bird species had relatively low proportions of birds found with plastic in them, these numbers will drastically increase over time.

Literature source

[scienceforbirds]

I spy on birds for fun

Don’t worry, I’m sure they like being gawked at. 

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As we drive past flooded grasslands in the middle of nowhere, we approach a congregation of strange waterfowl scattered throughout the planes ahead of us. Upon further inspection, we note the massive migration of White-faced ibis, a bird with a long neck coupled by an even longer, curved bill. Its feathers are a sheer black with hues of green and purple that reflect off the surface of its body under the sunlight. I can’t help but think they look more suited for the Nile River in Egypt than Oregon backcountry. With each acre passed, we continue to see more birds enjoying the various bodies of water as a result of particularly abundant spring showers, each more colorful than the next. Most of them, my teacher pointed out, are migrating from South America. As it happens, Malheur–located in Eastern Oregon–is a hotspot for many commuting species looking for a pit-stop. 

My first trip to Malheur as part of an Ornithology class I took in highschool was what really got me passionate about birds. After just two days, I found myself frantically grasping for my binoculars are every slight movement in the upper branches of trees and every vague shape suggesting a bird of prey soaring in the distance. I had become an avid birdwatcher.

We spotted a grant total of 100 birds during our Labor Day weekend in Malheur.

Perhaps it’s the fact that birds had to evolve some of the strangest characteristics (hollow bones, multiple air sacks, a gullet) that made them so interesting to me, or maybe it was the bizarre mating dances of birds of paradise or lifelong partnerships of the albatross. Maybe it was their sheer intelligence and ability to solve puzzles, like crows. Or maybe its because I was always jealous of their ability to fly. 

Regardless of the reason, birds are fascinating creatures that fill so many people with joy, and are incredibly important to our ecosystem. 

After highschool, I enrolled to Northeastern University and am currently pursuing a degree in Marine Biology. Though birds and the ocean don’t seem very related, there are many connections to the two, and my studies don’t solely focus on organisms that live in the ocean. Birds eat fish, live near the ocean, and are impacted by many of the same things fish are, like plastic and oil pollution. With my major I’m able to understand science and ecosystems as connected bodies, and despite my focus on marine life, I’m always excited to bring birds back into the equation during research. For this blog, I hope to be able to highlight some of the issues birds face and current research being done.