Avian range expansion

rdf:langString Avian range expansion

rdf:langString Avian range expansion describes how birds expand their habitat. Because of the activities of birdwatchers, these range expansions are well documented. Throughout the last century a number of birds have expanded their range. Birds that were once thought to be only located on the West Coast of have moved eastward all the way to the East Coast, an example would be the Brewer's blackbird. Since the 1950s the Brewer's blackbird, a relative of the red-winged blackbird, has been moving eastward first from the West Coast of Oregon and California to the Great Lakes Region and then towards the East Coast, with the range expanding from Coast to Coast according to the Audubon's 2005 Christmas Bird Count. The Inca dove first arrived as a native of Mexico and has slowly expanded Northward into Kansas and Arkansas. Great tailed grackles have also moved in similar fashion northward. Another region with documented range expansions is South Africa, where a number of birds have expanded westwards into the Western Cape province from other provinces due to habitat modification by humans and introductions. Examples of these include the Helmeted Guineafowl (introduced) and the Hadeda Ibis (natural expansion). Range expansion may be explained by several different reasons.