The 'Great Texas Freeze' killed thousands of purple martins: Biologists worry recovery could take decades

Thousands of birds, including beloved purple martins, died in "The Great Texas Freeze" of 2021. A study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution led by biologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, reveals not only the extent of the die-off—up to 27% of the birds' breeding population in Texas and Louisiana—but that recovery may take decades, and that we can expect weather-driven mass mortality events, increasingly common in the era of global climate change, may increasingly wreak havoc on animal populations.