Later supper for blackbirds in the city: Artificial light gives birds longer to forage for food
Monday, October 20, 2014 - 10:31
in Earth & Climate
Artificial light increases foraging time in blackbirds. Birds in city centres are active not just considerably earlier, but also for longer than their relatives in darker parts of the city. That is the result of a study of around 200 blackbirds in Leipzig, which was carried out in the framework of the "Loss of the Night" research project. The study showed that artificial light has a considerable influence on the activity times of blackbirds in the city and therefore on their natural cycles, according to scientists of the Helmholtz Centre for Envi-ronmental Research (UFZ) and the Leipzig University, published in the special-ist periodical Journal of Ornithology.