Main causes of bird-window collisions: a review.

Lay G Basilio,Augusto J Piratelli,Daniele J Moreno

doi:10.1590/0001-3765202020180745

Lay G Basilio, Augusto J Piratelli + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/0001-3765202020180745

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Abstract

Bird-window collisions are a major cause of bird mortality in the world; up to one billion birds die each year from collisions with glass panes in North America alone. However, relatively little attention had been given to this issue in the broad scientific literature, despite a recent increase in the number of papers. In this paper, the indexed literature on bird-window collisions was reviewed, specifically addressing the causal factors. The search retrieved 53 papers, mostly from North America. The factors linked to higher collision rates were large areas of continuous glass, the presence of nearby vegetation and feeders, bird migration, abundance, and behavior. Several factors were site-specific, preventing the global extrapolation of these findings. There is a lack of scientific knowledge regarding bird-window collisions in tropical countries. One of the challenges to mitigating this problem is the small amount of information and - frequently - the extrapolation of findings described for temperate regions to other areas. There is a need for a greater and urgent effort to fill this gap.

Highlights

Human-population growth has led to the conversion of areas of natural ecosystems into anthropogenic landscapes (Foley et al 2005), of which urban settlements are one of the most artificial; becoming increasing more so with time (McDonald 2008)
The main objectives of this paper are to (a) estimate how many papers have been published on indexed databases on bird-window collisions; (b) identify the geographical distribution of these publications; (c) identify the taxonomic groups most-frequently involved in collisions and; (d) understand the factors that cause birds to collide with glass panes
Most publications came from the Northern Hemisphere (n=43; 81.13%), mainly the United States and Canada (Table I)

Summary

Introduction

Human-population growth has led to the conversion of areas of natural ecosystems into anthropogenic landscapes (Foley et al 2005), of which urban settlements are one of the most artificial; becoming increasing more so with time (McDonald 2008) They harbor numerous dangerous features to birds that result in billions of bird deaths every year (Erickson et al 2005, Klem 2006, Santiago-Alarcon & Delgado-V 2017). Estimates of the death rates from Canada and the United States range from 16 to 42 and 365 to 988 million birds a year, respectively (Machtans et al 2013, Loss et al 2014) Even still, these alarming rates may be underestimates, since not all individuals die immediately after a collision (Klem 1990a), and carcasses can be quickly removed by scavengers (Bracey et al 2016)

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