Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot Gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

HTTPS

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Megafires and Thick Smoke Portend Big Problems For Migratory Birds

Abstract

In 2020, the fire season affecting the western United States reached unprecedented levels. The 116 fires active in September consumed nearly 20,822 km2 (https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/accessible-view/ Accessed 2020-09-29) with 80% of this footprint (16,567 km2) from 68 fires occurring within California, Oregon, and Washington. Although the 2020 fire season was the most extreme on record, it exemplified patterns of increased wildfire size, number, timing, return frequency, and extent, which are linked to climate-driven changes in precipitation and temperature affecting fire ignition and severity (Westerling 2016, Goss et al. 2020, Weber and Yadav 2020). In addition, wildfire smoke and particulate pollution have expanded greatly in recent decades throughout western North America, posing a threat to both human and ecological health (Burke et al. 2021). Wildfires have increasingly coincided with the start of fall migration (Westerling 2016, Goss et al. 2020) and may present a growing risk to migrating birds in the Pacific Flyway. Migrating birds across several western states were observed dead and dying in 2020. Within the Central Flyway, starvation of insectivorous birds that were recovered in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico was linked to a record cold-weather storm in the Rocky Mountains (Fox 2020). But causes of the nearly simultaneous bird mortalities of larger granivorous species (Fig. 1) further west in the Pacific Flyway, where fires were occurring, remain unclear.

Article / Publication Data
Active/Online
YES
Available Metadata
DOI ↗
Early Online Release
October 08, 2021
Fiscal Year
Peer Reviewed
YES
Publication Name
Ecology
Published On
January 02, 2022
Publisher Name
Ecological Society of America
Print Volume
103
Issue
1
Submitted On
February 10, 2021
URL ↗

Institutions

Not available

Authors

Authors who have authored or contributed to this publication.

  • Cory T. Overton - lead None
    Other
  • Eric P. James - third Gsl
    Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder
    NOAA/Global Systems Laboratory
  • Ravan Ahmadov - fourth Gsl
    Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder
    NOAA/Global Systems Laboratory