Hurricane Sandy has, rightfully, dominated the news the past week or so, even pushing the election to the back pages.
While Sandy’s wind, rain and storm surge have certainly affected many
people, some folks are also wondering about the effects its had on
birds in the places the hurricane passed through.
Numbers are hard to come by, but it’s clear that many birds are
killed outright by hurricanes. This is especially true of seabirds,
which have nowhere in which to seek shelter from these storms. Beaches
may be littered with seabird carcasses following major storm events.
Most Atlantic hurricanes occur in late summer and early fall—and fall
storms coincide with bird migration and may disrupt migration patterns
severely.
Many birds get caught up in storm systems and are blown far off
course, often landing in inhospitable places or simply arriving too
battered and weakened to survive. Others, while not killed or displaced
by storms, may starve to death because they are unable to forage while
the weather is poor. The number of birds that die as a result of a major
hurricanes may run into the hundreds of thousands.
Healthy bird populations are able to withstand such losses and have
done so for eons. However, hurricanes can have severe impacts on
endangered species, many of which occur on tropical islands, often among
the places hardest hit by hurricanes. For example, Hurricane Hugo in
1989 killed half of the wild Puerto Rican Parrots existing at that time.
The Cozumel Thrasher, found only on Mexico’s Isla Cozumel, was pushed
to the edge of extinction by Hurricane Gilbert in 1988.
Hurricane Iniki
may have wiped out the last survivors of as many as three bird species
when it hit Hawaii in 1992.
Apart from the direct, physical effects hurricanes may have on birds,
they also can have detrimental effects on bird habitats. Cavity-nesting
species can be especially hard hit because the trees in which they nest
often are blown down or snapped off at the cavity. Hurricane Hugo,
which hit the Carolinas in 1989, destroyed most of the area’s nest trees
of the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker; one forest lost 87 percent
of its nest trees and 67 percent of its woodpeckers. Only through the
installation of artificial nest boxes have these populations been
restored to pre-storm levels.
