![\"photo](\"http:\/\/planetsave.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/birds.jpg\" "\\"birds\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe birds in California are growing. Nobody is exactly sure why, as it goes against the existing theory known as \u201cBergmann\u2019s Rule<\/a>,\u201d which states that the colder the environment or the higher the latitude, the larger the bird or mammal will be (most likely to preserve body heat). Birds and mammals of the same genus tend to be significantly smaller when found in warmer climates. Bergmann\u2019s Rule has been accepted in the science community for over 150 years, so by all logic, birds in California should be getting smaller in size due to global warming, not bigger.<\/p>\n Yet, according to a study<\/a><\/span> conducted over the last 40 years, birds in central California have increased between 2 and 5 percent in body weight and wingspan. Data have been collected from a variety of birds by researchers at San Francisco State University since 1971. Almost 15,000 birds have been tracked near the northern tip of the bay at the Palomarin Field Station<\/a> at Point Reyes National Seashore<\/a> since 1971. From 1983 to 2009, an additional 18,052 birds have been tracked from the southern end of the bay at Coyote Creek Field Station.<\/p>\n A wide variety of bird species were used in the study. Each bird that was used in the study was caught, banded with an identification tag, and weighed and measured before being released. Many of these birds were recaptured over the following years, which contributed to building a database that tracked the changes in the birds.<\/p>\n In a similar study conducted in Pennsylvania, the birds shrunk, following Bergmann\u2019s Rule. Other researches throughout Europe have also studied patterns in bird growth over the decades and have found that the birds tend to have decreased in size, as well. So why are California birds the exception to the rule?<\/p>\n Researchers in California expected to find that the birds they were studying would decrease in size. They were quite surprised to discover the opposite was true. One theory as to why California\u2019s birds are increasing in size, though, is that they are storing more body fat in order to survive extreme weather conditions, which scientists say are connected to climate change. Simply put: larger birds have higher chances of surviving a storm than smaller birds. By this theory, natural selection<\/a> is selecting birds with larger bodies and wingspans.<\/p>\n Another theory is that the birds\u2019 diets have changed. With the warming of the climate, plant and insect populations change, meaning the local birds would have access to different types of foods that might be causing the birds to pack on the pounds and grow bigger in size.<\/p>\n So, what does the increase in bird size mean? Scientists don\u2019t know yet, and state that more research will have to be done in order to determine the consequences of these changes<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n One thing\u2019s for sure, the next time you step outside your garage door in California, keep an eye out for birds. They shouldn\u2019t be hard to spot.<\/p>\n Join in the discussion in the comments below and share this piece with your California friends.<\/p>\n Photo credit:\u00a0 Since 1971, researchers in California have been collecting data on birds’ bodies and wingspans and have discovered that the birds have been growing in size. These research findings seem to be an exception to Bergmann’s Rule, which is unusual when compared with similar studies throughout the United States and even Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9,21,27,38],"tags":[4735,5728,7352,7679,15298,20890,24201,27081,27856,30651],"spectra_custom_meta":{"_rpuplugin_enabled":["yes"],"dsq_thread_id":["518888726"],"dpsp_networks_shares":["a:4:{s:8:\"facebook\";i:0;s:11:\"google-plus\";i:0;s:9:\"pinterest\";i:0;s:8:\"linkedin\";i:2;}"],"dpsp_networks_shares_total":["2"],"dpsp_networks_shares_last_updated":["1567098963"],"penci_post_views_count":["1746"],"penci_post_week_views_count":["13"],"penci_post_month_views_count":["47"],"rank_math_news_sitemap_robots":["index"],"rank_math_robots":["a:1:{i:0;s:5:\"index\";}"],"rank_math_og_content_image":["a:2:{s:5:\"check\";s:32:\"a7f3a7351a279e8845f5df63978d0d89\";s:6:\"images\";a:0:{}}"],"_uag_page_assets":["a:9:{s:3:\"css\";s:263:\".uag-blocks-common-selector{z-index:var(--z-index-desktop) !important}@media (max-width: 976px){.uag-blocks-common-selector{z-index:var(--z-index-tablet) !important}}@media (max-width: 767px){.uag-blocks-common-selector{z-index:var(--z-index-mobile) !important}}\n\";s:2:\"js\";s:0:\"\";s:18:\"current_block_list\";a:4:{i:0;s:10:\"core\/image\";i:1;s:14:\"core\/paragraph\";i:2;s:12:\"core\/heading\";i:3;s:17:\"core\/latest-posts\";}s:8:\"uag_flag\";b:0;s:11:\"uag_version\";s:10:\"1714089639\";s:6:\"gfonts\";a:0:{}s:10:\"gfonts_url\";s:0:\"\";s:12:\"gfonts_files\";a:0:{}s:14:\"uag_faq_layout\";b:0;}"],"_uag_css_file_name":["uag-css-26624.css"]},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Chris Keenan","author_link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/author\/chrisk\/"},"uagb_comment_info":67,"uagb_excerpt":"Since 1971, researchers in California have been collecting data on birds' bodies and wingspans and have discovered that the birds have been growing in size. These research findings seem to be an exception to Bergmann's Rule, which is unusual when compared with similar studies throughout the United States and even Europe.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26624"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26624\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>\u00a0Some rights reserved<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Macorig Paolo<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"