Feds call climate change a killer threat to this mountain bird

By Michael Doyle | 07/02/2024 01:43 PM EDT

The Mount Rainier white-tailed ptarmigan has long been known to be vulnerable to warming in its Washington state habitat.

A Mount Rainier white-tailed ptarmigan is seen in winter snow.

A Mount Rainier white-tailed ptarmigan is seen in winter snow. Cathy Cook/Fish and Wildlife Service

The Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday pronounced the Mount Rainier white-tailed ptarmigan as a threatened subspecies, a sobering case study in what happens when the climate changes.

The birds found in Washington state are distinctly adapted to mountain conditions, molting to white feathers for winter camouflage. The Mount Rainier white-tailed ptarmigan have “numerous adaptations” for extreme cold and have “heavily feathered feet that act as snowshoes,” according to the federal agency.

The ptarmigan also run hot and need help cooling down, making them reliant on what the Fish and Wildlife Service identified as “microsites such as the edges of snowfields, near snowbanks, in the shade of boulders, or near streams where temperatures are cool.” These cooling-off spots and the species that need them don’t fare well as the climate changes and the Earth warms.

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“The effects of climate change are already evident in Mount Rainier white-tailed ptarmigan habitat, and the projected future increase in those effects may decrease the viability of the subspecies,” FWS stated.

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