Climate change pushing chickadee, Maine’s official bird, toward Canada

[Chris Merkord]

Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapilla), Morriston, Ontario. Flickr, jackanapes.

The black-capped chickadee, which has been the official bird of Maine since 1927, has a more northerly habitat than the larger vulture, which has a traditional range that extends from the mid-Atlantic states all the way through South America. Over the past decade global air and water temperatures have increased significantly, shifting the black-capped chickadee’s and black vulture’s range northward. The black vulture can now can be found in southern New England, scientists said Monday during a teleconference about a new National Wildlife Federation report on bird’s changing habitats.

 

There are indications that the chickadee’s habitat in Maine is shifting away from the coast and toward the Canadian border, they said, while the black vulture moves further into New England from the south. “There are a whole bunch of species like that,” Hector Galbraith, northeast scientist for NWF, said Monday about the vulture. The red-bellied woodpecker is another example of a more southerly bird slowly moving toward Maine, he said. Around 1990, there was one known nesting pair in New England, in Cape Ann, Mass. Now, he added, there are hundreds if not thousands.

 

Read more: http://www.sunjournal.com/news/maine/2013/06/25/climate-change-pushing-chickadee-maine-s-official/1383973

[Chris Merkord]

If anyone knows what publications this article is referring to, I am interested to know. The article did not say.