Birds That Live Long and Slow May Be More Vulnerable to Climate Change, Research Finds

Live fast, die young—or live long and hedge your bets? These are two of the strategies that the world’s non-migratory, non-marine bird species have employed throughout evolutionary history to survive in different environments, while maximizing their ability to breed and avoid extinction. 

Research shows birds that live in areas with higher temperature variability within a year typically have shorter lifespans, reproducing early and often. Meanwhile, avian species tend to live longer in environments that are more variable year-to-year because their extended lifespans allow for more wiggle room to skip a breeding season or two if conditions aren’t ideal.

However, hedging your bets in this way may not be the right option when climate change stacks the game against you, according to a new study. While longer-lived birds may be more robust during their lifetimes, “fast” species will likely be quicker to evolve to the rapidly rising temperatures, the research finds. 

But there are tradeoffs to both approaches as climate impacts unfold. 

Short and Sweet: By combining a vast collection of data on global climate, bird species traits and ranges, researchers have started to unravel how environmental variability shapes lifespans in the avian world. Their study (which excluded seabirds due to their different coping mechanisms) covered nearly 7,500 of the world’s non-migratory bird species—from sulphur-crested cockatoo, which can live more than 25 years in the wild, to double-barred finch, which had the shortest generation length of just around a year and a half. 

“I was really interested in, essentially, what things actually drive animals to be fast or slow paced,” lead study author Casey Youngflesh, an assistant biology professor at Clemson University, told me. “You see this variation, but why is that?” 

Though it may sound counterintuitive, shorter lifespans are actually a survival strategy in some environments—for the species as a whole, at least. That’s likely because these animals are investing their energy in reproducing as frequently as possible to ensure their genes are passed on, rather than dedicating resources toward longevity. Many shorter-lived birds are found in environments with higher seasonality during the year, like New York, which has vastly different temperatures in summer versus winter.

On the other end of the spectrum, they found that longer-living species were found in regions with more variability from year to year. Long lifespans may allow for some wiggle room when it comes to breeding. But as temperatures tick up, living slow can be a “double-edged sword,” Youngflesh said. 

“You’re able to cope with this variability by living a long time … but you can’t adapt as quickly to change,” he said. “The shorter your generation time is … the quicker you can adapt to something, the quicker you can evolve, because you’re pumping out more generations.” 

He added that it is crucial to contextualize the rates of climate change experienced by species in the context of their environments because different birds have different tolerance levels to temperature changes. The study found that the long-lived bird species that are experiencing rapid rates of temperature and precipitation change in environments that have traditionally been less variable are some of the most vulnerable to global warming. 

Many of these species can be found in parts of Southeast Asia, such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. These areas had relatively steady temperatures, which are now rising at a pace that the species are struggling to adapt to. 

“This study sheds light on a key mechanism underlying the evolution of life history traits for the world’s birds,” bird scientist Frank A. La Sorte told me over email. La Sorte, a senior scientist at Yale University who was not involved in the new study, noted that there were some limitations to the research, but that its findings have broad practical implications.

“Climate extremes are an integral part of environmental variation,” he added, “and as the frequency, intensity, and duration of these events increases in some regions under climate change, a logical next step would be to determine how the study’s findings can help [us] to understand the implications of these trends for the world’s birds.”

The Case for Living Long: As climate change accelerates, living fast and dying young has its downsides, too. The new study focused on temperatures and precipitation for non-migratory, non-marine birds, but other climate factors can drive extinctions for a variety of animals. 

A 2022 study showed that animal species with longer lifespans are more equipped to cope with extreme weather like hurricanes and droughts. For example, llamas, long-lived bats and elephants are less vulnerable than mice, possums and rare marsupials such as the woylie, the researchers found. 

“We can see a clear pattern: Animals that live a long time and have few offspring are less vulnerable when extreme weather hits than animals that live for a short time and have many offspring,” study author Owen Jones, a biology professor at University of Southern Denmark, said in a statement. 

The study notes that small, short-lived mammals are more likely to rebuild populations faster when conditions improve, given their ability to reproduce quickly. But in extreme cases, species with shorter lifespans that live in niche habitat areas could be wiped off the map entirely if an extreme weather event hits during the breeding season. 

Protecting long-lived animals could also be crucial to buffering ecosystems from the impacts of climate change, according to a recent study that my colleague Georgina Gustin reported on. Old, large trees are crucial for carbon storage, while elderly animals in a group often pass down both environmental and social knowledge to their communities and offspring that’s critical for survival. 

Regardless of whether a species lives fast or slow, though, a wide body of research shows that climate change is outpacing most plants’ and animals’ ability to adapt—and cutting emissions is the most effective way to help them (and us) catch up. 

More Top Climate News

Let’s start off with a rare bit of good news for biodiversity: At an extended session of the United Nations biodiversity conference on Thursday, countries agreed on a plan to contribute $200 billion a year by 2030 toward conservation. In November, I wrote about the main part of the conference, which took place in Colombia, where negotiators made strides in some areas but failed to agree on a strategy to scale up finance through this fund. Though the money itself was not definitively committed to, it’s a big step in the right direction, environmental advocates say. The U.S. did not send a delegation to the meeting, which was in Rome. 

“At a complicated geopolitical moment, this is an exciting show of progress and international cooperation for nature,” Linda Krueger, director of biodiversity and infrastructure policy at The Nature Conservancy, told The Associated Press. “Technocratic as they might sound, these are the details that will transform ambitions on paper into tangible conservation action on the ground.”

Meanwhile, widespread layoffs have continued at agencies across the U.S. federal government. Hundreds of employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including weather forecasters and climate scientists, were fired starting on Thursday, with new reports coming in real time. Experts say that gutting the agency could result in less accurate weather forecasts, delays in updates to maritime maps and disruption in critical climate research, NPR reports. 

A new study uncovered evidence that climate-fueled extreme heat could accelerate the aging process in people, modifying DNA. Studying more than 3,600 older adults in the U.S., the researchers found that people living in areas with high levels of extreme heat showed faster aging at a molecular level compared with those in areas that are not as hot, Mohana Ravindranath reports for The New York Times. Speeding up the molecular clock on aging could increase peoples’ risks for certain health conditions, the study finds.