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Urban development is encroaching on forests in the Pacific Northwest. And it’s also ruining Valentine’s Day for some songbirds. Because urban growth is making it a challenge for some birds like the Pacific Wren¹ to stay faithful to their partners, at least in Seattle—a housing boom is taking over the wren’s habitat: the thick forest understory

城市的发展正在侵蚀太平洋西北部的森林。同时也毁了一些鸣禽的情人节。因为城市的发展，至少在西雅图地区，使得太平洋鹪鹩等鸟类要忠于自己的伴侣成为一项难题——房地产市场的繁华占据了它们的栖息地：茂密森林的下层植被。

“So, I really think it’s just the fact that we really kind of pull the rug out from underneath² these birds. Take their forest away.”

“所以，我真的认为，我们侵占了鸟类的空间。占据了它们的森林。”

John Marzluff, professor of wildlife science at the University of Washington. While birds like crows and sparrow adapt well to human habitats, Marzluff says that development is forcing the wren and other songbird species to find new digs. And when that wren moves, it also abandons its mate. The work is in the journal PLoS ONE.

美国华盛顿大学野生动物学教授约翰(John Marzluff)博士发表了上述言论。乌鸦和麻雀等鸟类可以很好得适应人类的栖息地，约翰博士表示，但城市的发展迫使鹪鹩和其他鸣禽去寻找其他的栖息地。当鹪鹩离开，也就意味着它抛弃了自己的伴侣。该研究结果发表在《公共科学图书馆》期刊上。

Marzluff’s decade-long study looks at six species in landscapes undergoing various levels of development.

约翰博士长达十年的研究观察了不同地方的6个物种，这些地方都经历了不同程度的发展。

“If you don’t go out for many years and follow individually marked birds, you’ll never really understand how nesting success over an animal’s lifetime or their strategies of moving and divorcing or finding new partners and places plays out over their lifetime.”

“如果不经过多年的研究，同时对标记的一些鸟类对其进行追踪，或许我们永远也不会了解到，在动物一生中营巢成功率或其搬窝和离婚的策略抑或寻找新伴侣和新的栖息地在鸟类的一生如何起作用。”

The study shows that even after birds reestablish themselves elsewhere, they have a harder time laying eggs and rearing chicks than they used to. More careful planning to let small urban forests remain could help even the smallest bird species thrive in cities.

研究表明，即使鸟类搭建了新的巢穴，它们繁殖以及喂养雏鸟的难度相比以前增加了。更加仔细的规划以保护小的城市森林可以让城市中最小的鸟类成长。

“These are not huge areas in the suburban³ matrix…they’re areas of 30 to 150 acres, and they are relatively⁴ easy to set aside for birds like this.” Otherwise, all those newly built houses means birds have broken homes.

在城郊，这些区域的面积并不大……约有30到到150公亩不等。所以，为鸟类留下这些区域也比较容易。否则的话，所有新建的房屋，意味者很多鸟类的家园遭到了破坏。