City Vs. Country Birds

• When biologists Fran Bonier and John Wingfield decided to delve into discovering differences between birds living in more urban and more natural environments, they discovered a very clear difference.
• Analyzing surveys sent out to bird enthusiasts all over the world, the team found that not only could city birds be found in a wider range of climates, but that they had developed quite a few adaptations along the way.
• Aside from being able to learn much more quickly than their country counterparts, city birds were found to be able to tolerate much higher hormonal stress levels, a likely reason that the birds managed to survive in such a, as some would say, "hospitable" environment.
• As John Wingfield says, the city birds "have a lot of flexibility in dealing with severe environments or environments that fluctuate widely."

Reflection:
This article immediately caused me to recall the peppered moth story, both having their similarities and differences. While both animals found themselves in a new man-made environment, the moths had to evolve to stay away from predators, while the birds, although having many predators removed by the presence of humans, also lost their food source. The one thing that I wondered about was why the city birds never ended up mating with the country birds and passing their useful traits down, helping the entirety of the bird population. Although the animals may not have the intelligence to directly affect their own evolutionary path, it seems like if it would happen naturally, the birds would just undergo natural selection and soon smart city birds would populate the countryside. On the other hand, if the city, in a sense, is also "evolving" than this could not happen, as the birds would need to be constantly under city influence to gain city traits.

Source:

Reed, Sunita. "City Vs. Country Birds." ScienCentral | Science Videos | Science News. 9 Apr. 2010. Web. 21 May 2010. .