New research has found that global warming is playing havoc with the timing of some birds reproduction.
Warm temperatures in spring normally cause a dramatic increase in the abundance of insect larvae, and birds such as the great tit Parus major take advantage of this. Using temperatures earlier in the year as a cue, they co-ordinate egg laying so that hatching coincides with the caterpillar bonanza.
But Marcel Visser and colleagues at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology have found that, over past 20 years, while egg laying cues have remained the same, climate change has led to an earlier food peak. The great tits they studied are moving out of synch with their environment - with potentially disastrous consequences for future generations.
(Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, vol. 265, pp1867-70).