Do blazes like the massively destructive San Diego fires of October 2007 endanger wild birds? It depends on season, species, and other circumstances.
Environmental calamities like floods, severe storms, droughts etc. can have an impact on bird populations. What about fires? Our first thought is probably that birds can just fly away and go somewhere where there isn’t any fire. That’s true in a lot of cases, but there are times when a fire can be devastating to birds: when they’re breeding and when they have very limited habitat are two obvious examples—in the summer of 2007, forest fires in the Canary Islands could have been the end of the threatened Blue Chaffinch on Gran Canaria.
Fortunately, by October, birds in the northern hemisphere have finished breeding and the young have fledged so the fires in southern California probably haven’t hurt birds in that way—some migrating birds may have discovered that a familiar stopover was unavailable. I’m not sure whether the areas affected have included any scarce habitat for threatened birds.
Domestic birds, of course, need rescue when fires threaten. They can’t fly away like wild species can, and it’s harder to find alternate accommodations for them than it is for people and more common pets. News reports from the San Diego area indicate that domestic birds are finding shelter with various organizations equipped to take them.
On the other hand, some birds need forest fires in order to survive. For example, Kirtland’s Warbler breeds only in immature jack pine forests, which renew themselves through regular forest fires. Other birds benefit from the insects that flourish in an area of forest that has burned.
In the midst of all the turmoil, it’s nice to think that a fire can ultimately have some benefits, even though they’re not obvious to us at the time.
Other Environmental Threats to Birds
