Competition limits the range of mountain birds
Vancouver, BC and Ithaca, NY—A new study helps uncover why tropical mountain birds occupy such a narrow elevation range, a mystery that has baffled scientists for centuries. While many temperature assumptions are responsible for this limited distribution, recent research suggests competition from other species plays a larger role in shaping bird ranges. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of British Columbia and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, included 4.4 million citizen science observations of 2,879 bird species worldwide. The findings were published in Science on July 21. “You have incredible biodiversity in the mountains, especially in the tropics. From one scenic point in the Andes, you can see mountain slopes that are home to as many species as the rest of North America,” said lead author Benjamin Freeman, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia. “We want to know, how does it work?” Freeman and his collaborators obtained the range of data