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Local avian density influences risk of mortality from window strikes
Up to a billion birds die per year in North America as a result of striking windows. Both transparent and reflective glass panes are a cause for concern, misleading birds by either acting as invisible, impenetrable barriers to desired resources, or reflecting those resources over a large surface are...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
PeerJ Inc.
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4924123/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27366656 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2170 |
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author | Sabo, Ann M. Hagemeyer, Natasha D.G. Lahey, Ally S. Walters, Eric L. |
author_facet | Sabo, Ann M. Hagemeyer, Natasha D.G. Lahey, Ally S. Walters, Eric L. |
author_sort | Sabo, Ann M. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Up to a billion birds die per year in North America as a result of striking windows. Both transparent and reflective glass panes are a cause for concern, misleading birds by either acting as invisible, impenetrable barriers to desired resources, or reflecting those resources over a large surface area. A high number of window strikes occur during migration, but little is known about the factors of susceptibility, or whether particular avian taxa are more vulnerable than others. We report on a study of window strikes and mist-netting data at the Virginia Zoological Park (Norfolk, Virginia, USA), conducted in the autumn of 2013 and 2014. We focused on three factors likely to contribute to an individual’s predisposition to collide with windows: (i) taxonomic classification, (ii) age, and (iii) migrant vs. resident status. Thrushes, dominated by the partial migrant American Robin (Turdus migratorius), were significantly less likely to strike glass than be sampled in mist nets (χ(2) = 9.21, p = 0.002), while wood-warblers (Parulidae) were more likely to strike than expected (χ(2) = 13.55, p < 0.001). The proportion of juveniles striking windows (45.4%) was not significantly different (χ(2) = 0.05, p = 0.827) than the population of juvenile birds naturally occurring at the zoo (48.8%). Migrants, however, were significantly more susceptible to window strikes than residents (χ(2) = 6.35, p = 0.012). Our results suggest that resident birds are able to learn to avoid and thus reduce their likelihood of striking windows; this intrinsic risk factor may help explain the apparent susceptibility of certain taxa to window strikes. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4924123 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-49241232016-06-30 Local avian density influences risk of mortality from window strikes Sabo, Ann M. Hagemeyer, Natasha D.G. Lahey, Ally S. Walters, Eric L. PeerJ Animal Behavior Up to a billion birds die per year in North America as a result of striking windows. Both transparent and reflective glass panes are a cause for concern, misleading birds by either acting as invisible, impenetrable barriers to desired resources, or reflecting those resources over a large surface area. A high number of window strikes occur during migration, but little is known about the factors of susceptibility, or whether particular avian taxa are more vulnerable than others. We report on a study of window strikes and mist-netting data at the Virginia Zoological Park (Norfolk, Virginia, USA), conducted in the autumn of 2013 and 2014. We focused on three factors likely to contribute to an individual’s predisposition to collide with windows: (i) taxonomic classification, (ii) age, and (iii) migrant vs. resident status. Thrushes, dominated by the partial migrant American Robin (Turdus migratorius), were significantly less likely to strike glass than be sampled in mist nets (χ(2) = 9.21, p = 0.002), while wood-warblers (Parulidae) were more likely to strike than expected (χ(2) = 13.55, p < 0.001). The proportion of juveniles striking windows (45.4%) was not significantly different (χ(2) = 0.05, p = 0.827) than the population of juvenile birds naturally occurring at the zoo (48.8%). Migrants, however, were significantly more susceptible to window strikes than residents (χ(2) = 6.35, p = 0.012). Our results suggest that resident birds are able to learn to avoid and thus reduce their likelihood of striking windows; this intrinsic risk factor may help explain the apparent susceptibility of certain taxa to window strikes. PeerJ Inc. 2016-06-23 /pmc/articles/PMC4924123/ /pubmed/27366656 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2170 Text en © 2016 Sabo et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited. |
spellingShingle | Animal Behavior Sabo, Ann M. Hagemeyer, Natasha D.G. Lahey, Ally S. Walters, Eric L. Local avian density influences risk of mortality from window strikes |
title | Local avian density influences risk of mortality from window strikes |
title_full | Local avian density influences risk of mortality from window strikes |
title_fullStr | Local avian density influences risk of mortality from window strikes |
title_full_unstemmed | Local avian density influences risk of mortality from window strikes |
title_short | Local avian density influences risk of mortality from window strikes |
title_sort | local avian density influences risk of mortality from window strikes |
topic | Animal Behavior |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4924123/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27366656 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2170 |
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