After fire in California's forests, what happens to the birds?

"Out of the 42 relatively common bird species in the study - including the mountain quail, green-tailed towhee, fox sparrow and lazuli bunting - each responded to fires a bit differently over time. For 11 species, population density increased and remained higher in the burned areas, with little or no signals of slowing down, even 35 years after a fire. For nine species, these benefits lasted longer than 20 years. For the rest, the benefits lasted less than two decades, or they showed little response at"

""It was really exciting to us to see how rapid and how enduring the response of birds was to these fires in these national parks," Chris Ray, a research ecologist for the Petaluma-based nonprofit, the Institute for Bird Populations, and the study's lead author, told SFGATE. "For 41 of the 42 species we looked at, population density actually increased a bit after low to moderate severity fires." Ray and her colleagues from the Institute for Bird Populations, the National Park Service and UCLA conducted the research in Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. They analyzed bird count data from 1999 to 2019 and combined it with high-resolution fire history data for up to 35 years before each count."

Researchers analyzed bird count data from 1999 to 2019 across Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, combining it with high-resolution fire history records up to 35 years prior to each count. Of 42 common species examined, 41 showed some population increase following low- to moderate-severity fires. Eleven species maintained higher densities for at least 35 years, nine species showed benefits lasting over 20 years, and the remainder had shorter-lived or minimal responses. The analysis focused on low- to moderate-intensity burns; high-intensity megafires can threaten bird populations.

Read at SFGATE