The effect will be drastic: a free-for-all bid by all birds to find a mate, a place to rest, and food in an era of declining and shifting resources like trees and insects. Extinction is the only end for some.
A new mix of chatter and silences will permeate the air as species flee to what feels like home: the California thrasher, rufous-crowned sparrow and ash-throated flycatcher will move to a hotter Point Reyes Peninsula losing its fogs and mists. Other species will withdraw from the Central Valley and move into the foothills and coasts -- increasing the competition for the birds who already live there.
The white-crowned sparrow flitting around coastal scrublands will be consolidated into only 24 percent as much swooping space as its habitat is desiccated by the heating of the earth's atmosphere. So, too, with the Pacific Northwest's varied thrush, whose winter sojourns in California will tighten into only 13 percent as much space as it once occupied.
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