How has the Accessibility to Human Food Changed the Behavioral or Morphological Traits in Modern Birds?
Author: Victor Gutierrez
Faculty Supervisor: Jaime Chaves
Department: Biology
Evolution is the driving force in which organisms have developed and diversified their traits from early ancestors due to environmental pressures. It is easy to see these changes over millions of years, but there can be evolutionary changes happening right in front of us. Recently, birds have had success from eating from humans or eating human food. As bird feeding is very common in the world, the overall effects it has on birds has not been highlighted or communicated effectively. In this study I will distinguish how the accessibility or dependency on human food has changed the behavioral or morphological traits in birds in the United States. Data is collected from various papers in which researchers focused their studies based on birds who are fed from the hands of humans and focusing on the effects that bird feeders have on birds. From past research I found that birds who eat from humans have a high number of innovative behaviors, an increase in population size, rapid feather growth and many other effects. My findings have shown that birds who often feed from bird feeders or direct hand feeding have expressed changes in behavior and morphological traits.