Swallow Birds Observed to Decline Migration from Europe to Africa Due to Milder Winters

A new study shows that the 6,000-mile migration of swallow birds to regions of South Africa is already in decline due to climate change. The birds stayed in the British areas over the winter instead of traveling downward the globe, despite the milder temperatures offered by the southern hemisphere.

This January, most of the swallows were found nesting in the south and southwest of Ireland and Britain. This is because the temperatures during winter are milder than in the past decades.

Climate Change and Migration of Swallow Birds

(Photo: Philip Ackermann from Pexels)

British Trust of Ornithology (BTO) chief executive Juliet Vickery explained that the signs exhibited by the swallows are a remarkable presentation of how climate change pushes the normal temperatures to warm.

The winter season makes it impossible for swallows to live through and survive the lowest temperatures. However, the winters in the region got milder, driving the avians to shift their behaviors. The expert said this phenomenon and associated impacts are expected to be witnessed periodically in the future.

Swallows normally travel to the southern hemisphere when the end of the summer season hits the calendar. The reason behind this migration is the overly-freezing temperatures. This factor also affects the food source of the avians by decreasing the population of insects they feed on.

The swallow migration in Europe had been known for centuries. The oldest record of the activity was even encrypted in a popular Greek relic that dates 500 BC. The artifact, according to DailyMail, is a vase drawn with figures of three men looking up and seems to wait for the return of swallows. The texts were written on the ancient object translated to "spring already."

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Milder European Winters

In the past couple of years, the milder European winters allowed some of the swallows to remain in the British regions, spending the entire season on the no tolerable conditions.

The BirdTrack survey from the BTO received alerts of over 100 cases from over 12 swallow individuals that stayed in the country. The birdwatchers reported these cases between January and February of 2022.

BTO science director James Pearce-Higgins explained that the swallows of today being able to survive the supposedly harsh conditions of the European winter would have been unthinkable decades ago."

This serves as evidence that climate change is escalating year by year, the director added.

The studies and identification of locations where the swallows migrate during winter were only carried out in recent years by introducing a tracking approach known as bird ringing.

The first concept of the particular conservation research method was through a swallow captured on a provincial farm located in Natal, South Africa. The swallow has a ring around its leg. The object was found the same as the ring attached by amateur naturalist John Masefield in Staffordshire, Cheadle, 18 months prior to the bird's recovery in the southern continent.

Swallows contain some 90 species under the avian family of Hirundinidae. Some of the swallows, such as the famous bank swallows, are known to the general knowledge as martins and terns.

They spend a staggering amount of time flying from place to place, making them among the most agile birds ever to exist. Their food source contains a variety of insects, from mosquitoes to hornets.