Archive: https://archive.today/QJVHJ From the post: >>When COVID-19 lockdowns emptied city streets, urban environments changed almost overnight. New research suggests that Los Angeles city birds responded just as quickly, with measurable shifts in beak shape during this period. The changes coincided with altered food availability and reduced human activity, offering a rare opportunity to examine how human behavior can rapidly shape biological traits in urban wildlife. Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) followed dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis) living on a university campus from 2018 to 2025. They found that birds hatched during the lockdown period developed beaks that more closely resembled those of nearby wildland populations, rather than the shorter, thicker beaks typically seen in urban juncos. As human activity and food waste returned, those differences appeared to fade in later generations.