• RegularJoe@lemmy.worldOP
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    7 days ago

    They observed that birds that hatched during the pandemic, when the campuses became empty and there was less food waste to feed on, had beaks with higher bill length and slimmer structure, similar to the wildland birds. However, after the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted and people started trickling back to campus and food waste became ample. Birds born during this period reflected this shift, exhibiting shorter, thicker beaks typical of urban juncos.

    The Study: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2520996122

  • Jesus@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    This is because the government redesigned the bird robots during the pandemic.

    • atomicorange@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Could be that, or the lack of humans lead to food scarcity for the urban birdies and the wild type were better adapted and thrived more and had more living babies for those couple of generations.