Storm-induced mass mortality results in both immediate and long-term consequences for a migratory songbird

Maria Stager; Phred M Benham; Nathan R Senner; Robert R Fitak; Kay Denmead; R Keith Andringa; Jacquelyn K Grace; Donna L Dittmann; Joe Siegrist; Anna M Forsman

doi:10.1038/s41559-026-03005-5

Storm-induced mass mortality results in both immediate and long-term consequences for a migratory songbird

Nat Ecol Evol. 2026 Mar 6. doi: 10.1038/s41559-026-03005-5. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Maria Stager¹, Phred M Benham², Nathan R Senner^{3

4}, Robert R Fitak⁵, Kay Denmead², R Keith Andringa⁶, Jacquelyn K Grace^{6

7}, Donna L Dittmann⁸, Joe Siegrist⁹, Anna M Forsman^{5

10}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA. mstager@umass.edu.
² Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA.
³ Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA.
⁴ Massachusetts Audubon Society, Lincoln, MA, USA.
⁵ Genomics and Bioinformatics Cluster, Department of Biology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA.
⁶ Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Interdisciplinary Program, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
⁷ Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
⁸ Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA.
⁹ Purple Martin Conservation Association, Erie, PA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Biology, Colby College, Waterville, ME, USA.

PMID: 41792447
DOI: 10.1038/s41559-026-03005-5

Abstract

Extreme weather events are occurring more often, resulting in increasingly frequent mass mortality events for plants and animals. Identifying why individuals die during these events and their long-term consequences for populations can enable a mechanistic understanding of species' vulnerability to global change. Here we report on early-arriving purple martins (Progne subis)-a migratory songbird-that were killed at >50% of their breeding sites across two US states during a severe winter storm event in 2021. Victims exhibited substantial allelic differences from individuals sampled before and after the storm event. The surviving population suffered delayed breeding, reproductive failure and, in 2022, late breeding-ground arrival. Phenological trait values returned to the mean by 2024, yet the population may be unlikely to recover demographically until at least 2027. Purple martins are markedly declining in the region and signatures of past events suggest that frequent mass mortality events may be challenging their resiliency.