Takeaway: Extreme weather events, from tornadoes to wildfires, impact birds in different ways–and not all of them are bad.
Extreme weather impacts everyone–birds included. Birds react to extreme weather in ways much different from humans, and some even benefit from wild storms and difficult weather.
Birds are among the most adaptable animals on Earth, and can thrive in everything from deserts to alpine tundra. Smart bird feeders can help you see some of the ways they adapt to different extreme events.
How Birds Handle Different Types of Extreme Weather
Understanding how birds behave during severe weather showcases their incredible survival instincts and illustrates how modern tools like smart bird feeders can help us learn more and even lend a helping hand.
How Birds React to Thunderstorms and Tornadoes
Birds are highly sensitive to changes in atmospheric pressure, and many species can sense that a big storm is approaching long before dark clouds gather on the horizon. Here’s how they may respond:
- Seek shelter: When thunderstorms and tornadoes approach, many birds will hunker down in dense shrubs, tree cavities, or under overhangs and eaves to stay out of wind and rain. Birds like chickadees and sparrows may even hide in burrows.
- Flight response: Some birds may fly away from danger if the storm is slow moving and far enough away. Migratory birds may reroute their journey if a storm is in their flight path.
- What about tornadoes? As with humans, birds have little time to react to tornadoes. Birds sensing a tornado will seek shelter, and many will quickly feed. Not all survive.
How Birds Survive–and Thrive–in Wildfires
Wildfires are natural events that many landscapes depend on, though the scale and severity of wildfires has increased in many places in recent years.
- Escape: Most birds will fly away from smoke and flames, taking up residence in suitable nearby habitats. Their keen senses tell them about the presence of a fire even when it is miles away.
- Improved hunting conditions: Birds like hawks and raptors often take advantage of charred land–and a reduction in brush and grass–to better hunt small animals.
- Improved habitat: Birds such as woodpeckers do well in post-fire environments, particularly when they can feed on insects that infest dead trees.
- More food: Birds returning to a landscape after a fire may find an increase in food. Some plants rely on fire to open their seed pods or release seed, making them more accessible to birds. Dead trees can be a haven for insects like the pine bark beetle, which many birds eat. And fires create open areas that make it easier for birds to forage in. Birds can reduce their metabolism to conserve energy, and fluff their feathers to create air that traps heat.
What Do Birds Do in a Blizzard?
When blizzards approach, birds seek shelter to protect themselves from strong winds, blowing snow, and frigid temperatures. They will retreat into tree cavities, dense foliage, and underbrush, and even in structures like sheds and barns. Some may even huddle together for warmth. Ground-nesting birds may burrow into snow drifts for insulation. If extreme cold hits a place that rarely sees winter weather, some birds may die. Small birds in particular are vulnerable to hypothermia, and other birds have a limited ability to regulate their body temperature. Birds that do survive extreme cold, such as the redpoll, which can handle temperatures as low as -65F, utilize strange strategies, such as storing food in their esophagus.
What Do Birds Do During Hurricanes?
Hurricanes can have severe and long-lasting effects on birds.
- Many birds sense a drop in barometric pressure and will leave coastal regions ahead of hurricane landfall.
- Birds caught in hurricanes may be blown off course and inadvertently relocated to areas they are not normally found. Some birds become trapped in the eye of the hurricane and are carried along by it.
- Shorebirds can lose huge swaths of habitat after a hurricane and may face exhaustion, injury, and death.
- Habitat destruction and food scarcity can be serious issues after hurricanes. Many birds are unable to find suitable nesting sites or food sources after major storms.
What Do Birds Do in Extreme Heat or Prolonged Droughts?
Like many animals, birds survive extreme heat by adapting their behavior, seeking water, and using evaporative cooling.
- Panting: Birds can’t sweat, so in order to release heat they use rapid, open mouth breathing to increase airflow and circulation.
- Urination: Some birds will pee on their legs to cool down through evaporation.
- Bathing: Birds may bathe in water to cool down.
- Soaring: Birds that can may soar to higher elevations where the air is cooler.
- Fluffing: While birds can fluff their feathers to trap warm air during extreme cold, they can also fluff to allow better air flow when it’s hot.
- Adjusting activity: When it’s hot, birds will become more active very early or very late in the day, when it’s cooler.
Can Birds Predict Earthquakes?
For centuries, people have reported that animals have acted strangely before earthquakes. Dogs howl, cats hide, and everything from fish to insects to reptiles do weird stuff. There are attempts to flee, unusual vocalizations, and increased restlessness.
In these stories are anecdotes about birds acting strangely, too–from becoming agitated to flying away. But can this behavior be used to know if the ground is about to shake? No. While there is abundant anecdotal evidence, there is no consistent, reliable pattern of bird behavior that can reliably predict an earthquake.
Some scientists suggest that birds and other animals may be reacting to earthquake precursors such as groundwater changes, variations in electromagnetic fields, or gases that are released from the ground. Birds may also be detecting what are called primary waves, or P-waves, which are seismic waves that precede the more damaging S-wave, or secondary wave.
Observe Bird Behavior Closely Using a Smart Bird Feeder
It is possible to observe how birds react to extreme weather by observing their behavior through a smart bird feeder.
Smart bird feeders like the FeatherSnap Scout or the FeatherSnap Smart Hummingbird Feeder are equipped with motion-activated HD cameras that send stunning up-close bird imagery directly to your phone or computer.
Using these images, you can gain insight into bird behavior before, during, and after extreme weather events.
- A drop off in bird activity may indicate birds are seeking shelter ahead of a storm.
- After a wildfire, bird feeders can help identify which birds have come back to your yard, and when.
- Bird feeders can provide critical nutritional support during or after extreme weather. For example, during periods of heavy snowfall and bone-chilling cold, bird feeders may be one of the only dependable sources of food available to birds.
- Through bird ID, you can begin to understand feeding frequency and even spot signs of stress or injury.
Extreme weather is all around us, and birds are often the first to show stress or impacts from it. Tools like smart bird feeders provide a window into how animals cope with extreme weather.