Patterns of bird-window collisions inform mitigation on a university campus

Bird-window collisions cause an estimated one billion bird deaths annually in the United States. Building characteristics and surrounding habitat affect collision frequency. Given the importance of collisions as an anthropogenic threat to birds, mitigation is essential. Patterned glass and UV-reflec...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Ocampo-Peñuela, Natalia, Winton, R. Scott, Wu, Charlene J., Zambello, Erika, Wittig, Thomas W., Cagle, Nicolette L.
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	PeerJ Inc. 2016
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4741078/

id	pubmed-4741078
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-47410782016-02-05 Patterns of bird-window collisions inform mitigation on a university campus Ocampo-Peñuela, Natalia Winton, R. Scott Wu, Charlene J. Zambello, Erika Wittig, Thomas W. Cagle, Nicolette L. Animal Behavior Bird-window collisions cause an estimated one billion bird deaths annually in the United States. Building characteristics and surrounding habitat affect collision frequency. Given the importance of collisions as an anthropogenic threat to birds, mitigation is essential. Patterned glass and UV-reflective films have been proven to prevent collisions. At Duke University’s West campus in Durham, North Carolina, we set out to identify the buildings and building characteristics associated with the highest frequencies of collisions in order to propose a mitigation strategy. We surveyed six buildings, stratified by size, and measured architectural characteristics and surrounding area variables. During 21 consecutive days in spring and fall 2014, and spring 2015, we conducted carcass surveys to document collisions. In addition, we also collected ad hoc collision data year-round and recorded the data using the app iNaturalist. Consistent with previous studies, we found a positive relationship between glass area and collisions. Fitzpatrick, the building with the most window area, caused the most collisions. Schwartz and the Perk, the two small buildings with small window areas, had the lowest collision frequencies. Penn, the only building with bird deterrent pattern, caused just two collisions, despite being almost completely made out of glass. Unlike many research projects, our data collection led to mitigation action. A resolution supported by the student government, including news stories in the local media, resulted in the application of a bird deterrent film to the building with the most collisions: Fitzpatrick. We present our collision data and mitigation result to inspire other researchers and organizations to prevent bird-window collisions. PeerJ Inc. 2016-02-01 /pmc/articles/PMC4741078/ /pubmed/26855877 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1652 Text en ©2016 Ocampo-Peñuela 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.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Ocampo-Peñuela, Natalia Winton, R. Scott Wu, Charlene J. Zambello, Erika Wittig, Thomas W. Cagle, Nicolette L.
spellingShingle	Ocampo-Peñuela, Natalia Winton, R. Scott Wu, Charlene J. Zambello, Erika Wittig, Thomas W. Cagle, Nicolette L. Patterns of bird-window collisions inform mitigation on a university campus
author_facet	Ocampo-Peñuela, Natalia Winton, R. Scott Wu, Charlene J. Zambello, Erika Wittig, Thomas W. Cagle, Nicolette L.
author_sort	Ocampo-Peñuela, Natalia
title	Patterns of bird-window collisions inform mitigation on a university campus
title_short	Patterns of bird-window collisions inform mitigation on a university campus
title_full	Patterns of bird-window collisions inform mitigation on a university campus
title_fullStr	Patterns of bird-window collisions inform mitigation on a university campus
title_full_unstemmed	Patterns of bird-window collisions inform mitigation on a university campus
title_sort	patterns of bird-window collisions inform mitigation on a university campus
description	Bird-window collisions cause an estimated one billion bird deaths annually in the United States. Building characteristics and surrounding habitat affect collision frequency. Given the importance of collisions as an anthropogenic threat to birds, mitigation is essential. Patterned glass and UV-reflective films have been proven to prevent collisions. At Duke University’s West campus in Durham, North Carolina, we set out to identify the buildings and building characteristics associated with the highest frequencies of collisions in order to propose a mitigation strategy. We surveyed six buildings, stratified by size, and measured architectural characteristics and surrounding area variables. During 21 consecutive days in spring and fall 2014, and spring 2015, we conducted carcass surveys to document collisions. In addition, we also collected ad hoc collision data year-round and recorded the data using the app iNaturalist. Consistent with previous studies, we found a positive relationship between glass area and collisions. Fitzpatrick, the building with the most window area, caused the most collisions. Schwartz and the Perk, the two small buildings with small window areas, had the lowest collision frequencies. Penn, the only building with bird deterrent pattern, caused just two collisions, despite being almost completely made out of glass. Unlike many research projects, our data collection led to mitigation action. A resolution supported by the student government, including news stories in the local media, resulted in the application of a bird deterrent film to the building with the most collisions: Fitzpatrick. We present our collision data and mitigation result to inspire other researchers and organizations to prevent bird-window collisions.
publisher	PeerJ Inc.
publishDate	2016
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4741078/
_version_	1613533598687690752

Patterns of bird-window collisions inform mitigation on a university campus

Similar Items