A particularly robust population of black flies has wrought havoc on Wisconsin loons, which have been fleeing their nests in record numbers due to the pesky biting insects.
Scientists say that around 80 percent of the black and white birds have abandoned their nests in Vilas County and more than 70 percent of nests in Oneida County, the Associated Press reported. The birds left as they were beginning to incubate their eggs.
"The intensity of the black flies is the worst I've seen in the 25 years I've monitored loons," Michael W. Meyer of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources told the AP.
While the loons will re-nest, the resulting chicks will hatch later in the summer, meaning that they may not be mature enough to withstand cold weather in the fall. Eggs need to be incubated by mother and father loons for around 30 days, and loon chicks can fly after about 11 weeks.
The biting flies seem to have a specific penchant for loons, said Meyer, who monitors around 150 loon nests and wrote a study in 2012 about the fly's attraction to the bird.
"It's one of the most exclusive relationships documented," Meyer told the AP.
Technically named Simulium annulus, the black fly has had a record year thanks to a combination of a cold Wisconsin spring and quick arrival of summer warmth in May.
"There's always a burst that comes out in May. This happens to be one that is particularly devastating," Walter Piper, a researcher at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., told the AP.
Northern Wisconsin is home to around 1,200 loons, whose number of loon chicks born this year could drop by 30 percent because of abandoned nests. Loons in Minnesota have been abandoning their nests as well after being irritated by biting flies.
"It'll set them back. It's been a blow to them," Piper said.
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