Multi-scale temporal variation in bird-window collisions in the central United States

Expansion of urbanization and infrastructure associated with human activities has numerous impacts on wildlife including causing wildlife-structure collisions. Collisions with building windows represent a top bird mortality source, but a lack of research into timing of these collisions hampers effor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2021-05, Vol.11 (1), p.11062-11062, Article 11062
Main Authors: Riding, Corey S., O’Connell, Timothy J., Loss, Scott R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/158/672
631/158/858
Animal Migration
Animals
Animals, Wild
Bird migration
Bird populations
Birds
Collision mortality
Conservation of Natural Resources
Humanities and Social Sciences
Mortality
multidisciplinary
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Seasonal variations
Spring
Temporal variations
United States
Urbanization
Wildlife
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Summary:Expansion of urbanization and infrastructure associated with human activities has numerous impacts on wildlife including causing wildlife-structure collisions. Collisions with building windows represent a top bird mortality source, but a lack of research into timing of these collisions hampers efforts to predict them and mitigate effects on avian populations. In Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA, we investigated patterns of bird-window collisions at multiple temporal scales, from within-day to monthly and seasonal variation. We found that collisions peaked during overnight and early morning hours, a pattern that was consistent across seasons. Further, temporal variation in fatal collisions was explained by an interaction between season and avian residency status. This interaction illustrated the expected pattern that more migrant individuals than residents collided in fall, but we also documented unexpected patterns. For example, the highest monthly total of collisions occurred in spring migration during May. We also found similarly high numbers of resident and migrant collisions in spring, and a roughly similar amount of migrant mortality in spring and fall migration. These findings, which provide unprecedented quantitative information regarding temporal variation in bird-window collisions, have important implications for understanding mechanisms by which birds collide and improving timing of measures to reduce this major bird mortality source.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-021-89875-0