SEATTLE — While the unusual quiet of COVID's first months was hard on many people, it allowed birds in the Pacific Northwest to use a wider range of habitats, according to a newly published University of Washington study.
The study, published Thursday in Scientific Reports, found that in Pacific Northwest cities under lockdown, birds were just as likely to be found in highly developed urban areas as in less-developed green spaces.
"Our findings suggest that some birds may have been able to use more spaces in cities because our human footprint was a little lighter," said Olivia Sanderfoot, who completed the study as a doctoral researcher at the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.
