Climate Change Impact Threatens Habitats of Migratory Birds, New Study Finds

A flock of blackbirds search for trees to perch on in the town on Hopkinsville, Kentucky February 16, 2013. (Reuters)
A flock of blackbirds search for trees to perch on in the town on Hopkinsville, Kentucky February 16, 2013. (Reuters)
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Climate Change Impact Threatens Habitats of Migratory Birds, New Study Finds

A flock of blackbirds search for trees to perch on in the town on Hopkinsville, Kentucky February 16, 2013. (Reuters)
A flock of blackbirds search for trees to perch on in the town on Hopkinsville, Kentucky February 16, 2013. (Reuters)

The global impact of climate change is threatening the habitats of some migratory birds along their migration route in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, reported the German news agency.

Based on the findings of a recent study, the Joint Wadden Sea Secretariat in Wilhelmshaven announced Monday that the rising sea level in northwestern Europe is one of the main challenges facing migratory birds.

The Wadden Sea off the coasts of Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands is considered the hub of East Atlantic bird migration.

Millions of birds eat up food reserves for their onward flight between Africa and the Arctic in the UNESCO-listed wetland.

“Climate change affects most coastal regions. For example, in addition to sea level rise in the Wadden Sea, extreme weather events such as heavy rain and storms are increasingly affecting the resting and breeding birds,” explained Kristine Meise, program manager for Migration and Biodiversity at the Wadden Sea Secretariat.

“The consequences of climate change, for example the erosion of coasts, are already being felt in the main wintering area off West Africa,” she added.

According to the study, other factors such as overfishing, shipping, and logging have an even greater influence there.

The assessment of habitat’s exertion was part of a study published in late April.

The project has been counting migratory bird populations along the East Atlantic bird migration route every three years since 2014.

The last census in 2020 involved more than 13,000 people in 36 countries.

According to Meise, these regular statistics are of great importance to spot the changing numbers of birds in an early stage, but “the process is difficult because birds normally don’t stay in one place, and sometimes, change their flying routes. This means that one species could be shrinking in the Wadden Sea, but stable or even growing in other parts of the world.”

She noted that counting requires synchronous statistics in all the locations of those birds.

Compared to data from the past decades, the 2020 census shows an increase in the number of 83 migratory groups. The population of birds was stable in 16 percent of these groups, while the researchers recorded a decrease in 30 percent of them, such as the waders that breed in the Siberian Arctic.

Meise suggested the changing climate conditions are the culprit behind those uneven numbers.

“The migratory birds have adapted to schedules over thousands of years. Due to climate change, spring, and thus snowmelt and insects hatching in the Arctic are beginning earlier. This would result in poorer breeding and rearing conditions for young birds, and a lower breeding success.” she said.

To face these threats and preserve migratory birds, the study’s authors have called for protecting the birds’ favorite habitats and applying sustainable preservation measures.



Europe's Oldest Lake Settlement Uncovered in Albania

A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci
A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci
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Europe's Oldest Lake Settlement Uncovered in Albania

A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci
A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci

Archaeologists working on the shores of Ohrid Lake in Albania are convinced they have uncovered the oldest human settlement built on a European lake, finding evidence of an organized hunting and farming community living up to 8,000 years ago. The team, from Switzerland and Albania, spends hours each day about three meters (9.8 feet) underwater, painstakingly retrieving wooden stilts that supported houses.

The are also collecting bones of domesticated and wild animals, copper objects and ceramics, featuring detailed carvings.

Albert Hafner, from the University of Bern, said similar settlements have been found in Alpine and Mediterranean regions, but the settlements in the village of Lin are half a millennium older, dating back between 6,000 and 8,000 years.

"Because it is under water, the organic material is well-preserved and this allows us to find out what these people have been eating, what they have been planting," Hafner said.

Multiple studies show that Lake Ohrid, shared by North Macedonia and Albania, is the oldest lake in Europe, at over one million years.

The age of the findings is determined through radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology, which measures annual growth rings in trees. More than one thousand wood samples have been collected from the site, which may have hosted several hundred people.

It is believed to cover around six hectares, but so far, only about 1% has been excavated after six years of work.

Hafner said findings show that people who lived on the lake helped to spread agriculture and livestock to other parts of Europe.

"They were still doing hunting and collecting things but the stable income for the nutrition was coming from the agriculture," he said.

Albanian archaeologist Adrian Anastasi said it could take decades to fully explore the area.

"(By) the way they had lived, eaten, hunted, fished and by the way the architecture was used to build their settlement we can say they were very smart for that time," Anastasi said.