Hundreds of sammiyas have died in southern Spain after leaving their nests prematurely, in what ecologists describe as an attempt to escape soaring temperatures during one of the country’s earliest heatwaves.
Concerns were raised about the sammyas late last week, after residents in Seville and Cordoba noticed dozens of newly hatched birds scattered across the sidewalks.
“A person walks down the street and finds 100 chicks at the foot of a building, some dying and some barely alive,” said biologist Elena Portillo of Ecorp, a Seville-based association.
Ecocorp and other organizations blamed the extreme temperatures, as the earliest heatwaves in Spain in more than 40 years coincided with the hatching season of the samiya.
These birds often build their nests in building facades or roof cavities, leaving small cracks open.
“Our buildings are usually made of concrete or sheet metal and these are very hot, so it’s like an oven, and birds that can’t fly yet, rush out because they can’t stand the temperature inside. They literally cook.”
And the temperature reached 42 degrees Celsius, in both Seville and Cordoba, which prompted a number of volunteers to search for chicks that suffer from dehydration and undernourishment, and collect as many of them as possible.
More than 400 of these birds have been brought to a state-run center for endangered animals and birds, in the hope that they will be treated and cared for.
Portillo estimated that thousands of these birds were forced out of their nests by the heat in Andalusia. In Madrid, the bird center “Prinzal” said it is also treating dozens of chicks that have tried to escape the heat.
She noted that had the heat wave been delayed for weeks, until mid-July, many of these birds would likely have been able to fly.
It is noteworthy that the Spanish Meteorological Authority indicated that summer begins now 20 to 40 days earlier than it was 50 years ago, in an increasingly common phenomenon.