Where birds tell a climate story

An Eleonora''s falcon (Falco eleonorae) flies in the sky above the small island of Antikythera, on September 17, 2024. Surrounded by cliffs, the tiny island of about twenty inhabitants, located in the middle of the Aegean Sea at the tip of the Balkan Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean, is a privileged corridor for migratory birds. In the fall, turtledoves, warblers, wrynecks, green, yellow and orange bee-eaters, as well as buzzards, falcons and other birds of prey migrate from Northern Europe to Africa. In the spring, they make the journey in the opposite direction. — AFP

GENTLY holding a blackcap warbler in his palm, ornithologist Christos Barboutis blew on its feathers to reveal the size of its belly: a good indicator of how far the bird can migrate.

Acutely vulnerable to climate change, migratory birds offer valuable clues to scientists about how our warming planet is affecting wildlife: from their shifting migration patterns to their body weight.