Buildings are a leading cause of bird deaths in the United States. More than a billion birds die each year after accidents. About 60 percent of birds brought to wildlife rehabilitation centers or emergency animal facilities die while in the facility, either from injuries or through euthanasia, according to a new study published Wednesday in the Public Library of Science Journal.
North America’s bird population has been in widespread decline over the past half-century. According to a Cornell Lab study, the North American bird population has declined by nearly 3 billion birds since 1970, making it all the more urgent to address threats to bird ecosystems.
Injured birds are often brought to wildlife rehabilitation centers with head injuries and concussions. The larger the bird, the more likely it is to recover and be released back into the wild. The rehabilitation centers examined in the study found that they received the highest number of avian patients in the fall and the fewest admissions in the winter.
But even with the best care, injured birds have only a 40 percent chance of recovery.
Glass is one of the main culprits in bird strikes. Unlike humans, birds cannot see the visual cues that differentiate glass from open air. Birds see the reflection on the glass and head straight for what they perceive as open sky or potential habitat, and birds see the reflection green spaces near windows, in the form of vegetation. It has been shown that buildings with curved surfaces rather than flat surfaces have a greater number of collisions with birds.
But there are ways in which people can Help prevent bird accidents.
“We can’t rely on rehabilitation alone to solve these kinds of problems,” said Ar Kornreich, lead author of the study and a researcher at Fordham University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. “The best medicine is definitely prevention, because some of these injuries have a very poor prognosis.”
One home remedy is to tape windows at least 2 inches by 4 inches apart so birds don’t think they can fly through the window, says Kaitlyn Parkins, window collision prevention program coordinator at the American Bird Conservancy. ABC BirdTape, for example, is a translucent tape that can be applied to the outside of the glass in strips or squares to prevent bird collisions.
Installing window screens or stickers is another way to prevent birds from hitting windows.
“Birds are in extremely rapid population decline,” Parkins said. “Birds are very important to humans. They’re economically important and they provide ecosystem services to us. And window collisions are contributing to that population decline. So it’s very important that we all consider them.” take measures to prevent collisions” . “
