By Taylor Kenyon, Jacob Larkin, Karissa Sears, Hunter Martin, Brooklyn Kotter, Christian Soto, And Dr. Jessica Habashi

Examining Ages of Birds That Have Fatally Collided With Windows at USU's C&SS Building, Brigham City, UT

Examining Ages of Birds That Have Fatally Collided With Windows at USU's C&SS Building, Brigham City, UT PDF File

Introduction

Window collisions are the second highest anthropogenic cause of bird death in the United States. Window collisions kill around 365,000,000 and 988,000,0003 birds each year in the US. We investigated the question: Do different age groups fatally collide with windows at different rates?

In a 2013 study, conducted in northwestern Illinois, researchers found juveniles were more likely to fatally collide with windows than adults1. Likewise, in a 2016 study in San Francisco, more juveniles fatally collided with windows than adults2 In our study we investigated if we could find similar results in Brigham City, Utah.

For this study juvenile birds are those that are in their hatching year.

Study Location (Shown Below):

Utah State University, Classroom and Student Services Building.

Classroom and Student Services Building at Utah State University.

Methods

After performing a walk around the C&SS. If a bird, or a part of a bird indicating a collision, was found we applied proper protective equipment and picked up the specimen from the place it was found. The specimen was then placed in a cooler to await further analysis of age and identification. Birds were aged by plumage condition and skull development.

The top side of a wing of a dead sparrow.Figure 1. Lincolns Sparrow
A dead sparrow with one wing splayed.
Figure 2. Brown Eyed Junco

Results

Upon examining the birds collected, we found that more birds in their hatching year, fatally collided with windows.

The graph below shows how many birds in their hatching year (HY), after hatching year (AHY), and after second year (ASY).

A bar graph of bird age by fatal collisions. After second year (ASY) is at 8 fatal collisions, after hatching year (AHY) is at 4 fatal collisions, and hatching year (HY) is at 13 fatal collisions.Bird Age and Fatal Collision

Conclusion

From this study we found that like the 2013 and 2016 studies1,2, more juvenile birds fatally collided with windows at the C&SS building.

Future Directions

Future studies could focus on why more juvenile birds collide into windows. Possible predictions could be that there were more juvenile birds in the area at the time of recording. Several twelve-month studies could be conducted to find hatching times of local birds.

Another prediction could be that juvenile birds are less visually acute thus more likely to collided. Visual acuity test could provide evidence for that prediction

Bibliography

  • 2. Hager, Stephen B., et al. “Window Area and Development Drive Spatial Variation in Bird-Window Collisions in an Urban Landscape.” PLoS ONE, vol. 8, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 1–10. EBSCOhost,doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0053 371
  • Kahle, L. Q., Flannery, M. E., & Dumbacher, J. P. (2016). Bird-Window Collisions at a West-Coast Urban Park Museum: Analyses of Bird Biology and Window Attributes from Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. PLoS ONE, 11(1), 1–22.
  • Loss, S. R., Will, T., Loss, S. S., & Marra, P. P. (2014). Bird–building collisions in the United States: Estimates of annual mortality and species vulnerability. The Condor, 116(1), 8-23. doi:10.1650/condor-13- 090.1