Birds ingest hundreds of bits of plastic a day, warns study

Birds living on river banks are ingesting plastic at the rate of hundreds of tiny fragments a day, according to a new study. Scientists say that this is the first clear evidence that plastic pollutants in rivers are finding their way into wildlife and moving up the food chain. Researchers found plastic pollutants in a bird known as a dipper, which feeds on underwater insects. Their alculations suggest that dippers are ingesting about 200 tiny fragments of plastic a day from the insects they consume. The research, published in the journal Global Change Biology, was carried out in collaboration with the Greenpeace Research Laboratories at the University of Exeter.