Circular-shaped decals prevent bird-window collisions
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Circular-shaped decals prevent bird-window collisions Bianca Costa Ribeiro 1
&
Augusto João Piratelli 2
Received: 18 November 2019 / Revised: 22 December 2019 / Accepted: 23 December 2019 # Sociedade Brasileira de Ornitologia 2020
Abstract Millions of birds die every year from collisions with glass panes worldwide. These estimates are still scarce in the tropics, and more studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of preventive measures. We compared the efficacy of two methods to prevent bird-window collisions: birds of prey vs. circular decals (BPD and CD, respectively), contrasted to glass panes without any intervention. We estimated bird-window collisions in four buildings, two twin buildings with CD treatment proportionally interspersed with no decals glass panes, and two BPD-treated buildings with proportionally control area without any device. We recorded 14 collisions from nine species, mostly Columbina talpacoti (4) and Tangara sayaca (3). The highest number of collisions was against glass windows with no intervention (9; 64%), followed by those with BPD (5; 36%). No accidents were recorded against glass panes with CD. Our data may support that circular decals are more efficient than BPD to prevent bird-window collisions. Keywords Anthropogenic impacts . Bird strikes . Bird-friendly buildings . Reflective glass . Urban birds
Anthropogenic intervention in the environment is responsible for direct (e.g., collisions with human vehicles and structures, predation by domestic animals) and indirect (e.g., habitat loss, climate change) causes of bird deaths worldwide (Loss et al. 2015). Billions of birds are estimated to die every year from glass window collisions globally (Klem-Jr. 2015), the secondlargest direct cause of bird deaths (Klem-Jr. 2009). In North America alone, these numbers exceed one billion a year (Machtans et al. 2013; Loss et al. 2014), and these estimates are scarce in the Neotropics (Basilio et al. 2020). This is worrying because tropical countries are home to the largest bird diversity in the world (Myers et al. 2000), probably leading to underestimated bird population declines (Basilio et al. 2020). The reflective property of glass produces a mirror effect of the surrounding environment, simulating a continuum and representing an invisible barrier to birds (Klem-Jr. 2009; Communicated by: Cristiano S. Azevedo * Augusto João Piratelli [email protected] 1
Programa de Iniciação Científica Voluntária, Laboratório de Ecologia e Conservação, Centro de Ciências e Tecnologia para a Sustentabilidade, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil
2
Departamento de Ciências Ambientais, Centro de Ciências e Tecnologia para a Sustentabilidade, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil
Aymí et al. 2017). Studies on bird-window collisions have increased (e.g., Borden et al. 2010; Kummer et al. 2016; Hager et al. 2017; Santos et al. 2017), and preventive measures have been proposed, usually aiming to visually sign the existence of an obstacle (Klem-Jr.
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