Reacción a "The absence of human activity during pandemic lockdowns altered the peaks of a bird species"

This study is experimentally robust, as it is based on data collected over seven years, before, during and after what the authors call the 'anthropause'. They define the 'anthropause' as the period during the covid-19 pandemic when our daily activities came to a standstill. In addition, the study is based on a large data set, with a total of morphological measurements of 626 dark-eyed junco adults and 1,067 chicks of known ages. 

Many studies indicate that the morphology of birds' beaks is determined by their diet, and this study seems to demonstrate this by going one step further: what will happen when these urban birds no longer have access to the food scraps that, consciously or unconsciously, humans have made available to them and which have been a regular source of food for them? The most novel aspect of this study is the speed with which these changes are observed and, equally surprising, their reversibility when human activity is restored.  

However, although the findings are of great interest and represent a fundamental first step, it would be desirable to analyse what would happen in species that are not so generalist, as well as in different geographical areas. It would also be relevant to analyse the diet of different individuals and even consider other morphological traits. 

Birds provide us with many services, in addition to their song and beautiful plumage. They act as seed dispersers and pollinators, participate in nutrient recycling, fertilise the soil, control pests... But beyond these benefits, this article encourages us to admire their ability to adapt to an environment shaped by and for humans, an environment that is often hostile to them. This admiration should invite us to rethink our responsibility in the way we share and shape the spaces we inhabit alongside them.