Scientists say birds thrived where humans were afraid during the pandemic.
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Scientists have used the term "anthropause" to describe the reduction in human activity since the COVID-19 pandemic. It's safe to say that most people find it restrictive. However, Wednesday's new study suggests that the pandemic has allowed many birds to fly free.
According to Science Advances findings, birds began to fly into cities as people stayed indoors and stopped using passenger jets to commute to work.
Michael Schrimpf is a postdoctoral fellow with the University of Manitoba's Natural Resources Institute. He and his colleagues used data from eBird (the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s online database of bird sightings) to compare the records of 82 bird species, a total of 4.3 million individual birds, in Canada and the United States. They compared the records of sightings in Canada of 82 bird species (a total of 4.3 Million individual birds) between March and May 2020, when many cities were under coronavirus lockdown. This was the same time period as 2017 through 2019.
Schrimpf told NPR that everything includes birds such as hawks, eagles, small songbirds, and even hummingbirds.
Even though there are billions more birds, sightings were up
They discovered that bird sightings were increasing near roads and airports in the aftermath of the pandemic. Overall, the majority of bird species examined showed significant changes in urban counts between 2020 and 2025. Most of these species increased by 10% to 20%.
Schrimpf points out that "the actual physical environment didn’t change." "There were still buildings and roads. These urban areas didn't have vast tracts of forest.
He said, "What changed was the activity of people within those spaces."
Schrimpf explained that the results didn't indicate a greater number of actual birds but that "the birds people were seeing were basically birds which would have been found in other places, instead they showed up in places more frequently travelled by people."
According to a 2019 estimate, North America has lost nearly three billion birds (or a third) of its breeding birds since 1970s.
However, not all species experienced an increase in their numbers.
The latest research found that just over 25% of bird species were showing mixed trends. However, some, like house sparrows or the pigeon commonly seen in cities, were less common in urban areas during pandemics.
Another caveat is that it's possible for birds to have moved into certain areas during the pandemic. This could be because these areas were quiet and unaffected by human activity. Schrimpf says that a place that looks safe for birds might end up being dangerous if it doesn't have the right food or isn't available to predators like coyotes or raccoons.
This trend is not only for birds, according to the most recent study. An article published in Nature last year stated that "Anecdotal observation indicates that many animal species are now enjoying the new afforded peace & quiet, while other species, surprisingly, seem to be under increased pressure."
Birds may prefer to work from home, but it is possible for them to be happier.
Although it's impossible to predict what will happen after the pandemic and lockdowns have ended, Schrimpf is optimistic.
He says that "We hope it might be an opportunity for us to learn from it that we can use in a post-pandemic environment." It is possible that those who work remotely could even use "helping birds" as a reason.
He says, "I believe there is an opportunity for us to adapt how we live, slow down." "For instance, if people could work remotely, even if only for a few days per week, it could decrease our human activity.
