Friday, September 09, 2016

The double-edged sword of wildlife-friendly yards

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/copo-tds071216.php

Public Release: 27-Jul-2016
The double-edged sword of wildlife-friendly yards
Increased risk of bird-window collisions
Central Ornithology Publication Office

Hundreds of millions of birds are killed in collisions with windows each year in the U.S. alone, and although high-rise buildings tend to be the biggest individual culprits, the vast number of suburban homes across the continent means that even a few deaths per house add up fast. A new study in The Condor: Ornithological Applications examines the factors that affect window collision rates at homes and shows that yards that are more attractive to birds are also the sites of more collisions.

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"Although each typical residential dwelling only causes one or a few bird-window collisions per year, the enormous number of these buildings means we are killing far more birds in our collective backyards than are dying at large office buildings and skyscrapers," according to Scott Loss of Oklahoma State University, lead author of a landmark 2014 review on the subject. "Kummer et al. provide an excellent example of how the power of citizen scientists can be harnessed to address this major conservation issue."

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Most homeowners would not want to remove their feeders and wildlife-friendly vegetation. Instead, the authors suggest that mitigation efforts should focus on evaluating the effectiveness of products such as tape and film that can be applied to window panes to prevent collisions. "As homeowners don't want to reduce the number of bird in their yards," says Kummer, "I think the next step will be to determine the best window deterrents they can use at their homes."

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