How do birds avoid electrocution?

What is the avian electrocution action website?

This website exists to highlight the issue of avian electrocution as outlined in a motion accepted at the 2016 World Conservation Congress, to help those responsible for the management, financing and development of electrical infrastructure to understand the problem – and how they can help solve it.

How many birds are electrocuted by lightning in Utah each year?

Studies by HawkWatch International revealed an electrocution rate of just under 1 bird per 100 poles per year, or 547 birds at 74,000 poles in Utah in 2001-2002. About 10% of the birds killed were Golden Eagles, 34% Ravens, and another 25%Buteos (Red-tailed, Swainson’s and Ferruginous Hawks).

How can we reduce the risk of avian collisions?

However, research indicates that marking the shield wire (transmission lines) or conductors (distribution lines) to increase visibility significantly reduces the incidence of avian collisions.

When did birds start getting electrocuted by power lines?

Records of electrocutions and collisions date back to the late 19th century; however, avian deaths associated with power lines were not a widespread concern until the 1970s, when surveys in the western United States found hundreds of eagles shot, poisoned, and electrocuted in rural areas.

How do environmental factors affect bird collision risk and susceptibility?

Environmental conditions may strongly affect both exposure to collision risk (by modulating bird behaviour), and susceptibility to collision (by enhancing or impairing a bird’s physical capacity to avoid hitting the lines).

How can we prevent bird collisions between power lines and birds?

Once power lines have been built, it is still possible to manage bird collision proactively by using the available information on previous collisions, avifauna, topography, vegetation and land use to anticipate where as yet undetected high risk sections of line might be located (e.g. Heck Reference Heck 2007).

What animals are most affected by avian collisions?

Cranes, bustards, flamingos, waterfowl, shorebirds, gamebirds and falcons are among the most frequently affected avian groups, and collision frequency is thought to be an influential factor in ongoing population declines in several species of cranes, bustards and diurnal raptors.

Does collision mortality affect bird population trends in North America?

Collision mortality has no discernible effect on population trends of North American birds. PLOS ONE 2011;6: e24708. pmid:21931824 7. Klem D Jr., Farmer CJ, Delacretaz N, Gelb Y, Saenger PG. Architectural and landscape risk factors associated with bird—glass collisions in an urban environment. Wilson J Ornithol. 2009;121: 126–134. 8.

How can we quantify bird collision risk from wind turbines?

In order to quantify bird collision risk, these models use the specification of wind turbines and current knowledge about behaviour, distribution and flight speeds as their input parameters to quantify the risk to birds.

What factors increase the risk of bird collisions?

Past studies at a variety of building types have also shown increases in bird collisions with greater building height [ 4, 19 ], area and/or percentage of windows or glass [ 7, 19, 25 ], and vegetation near buildings [ 7, 11 – 12 ].

Are bird-building collisions related to different seasons and bird species?

Fifth, few studies of bird-building collisions have gone beyond assessing factors influencing total collisions to also investigate collision correlates for different seasons and bird species.

Which avian species are most prone to eye disease?

Avian species that are presented to veterinarians for eye disease are generally in the raptor group (owls, falcons, and hawks) and the psittacines (parrots, cockatiels, and parakeets).

What are the symptoms of avian flu in birds?

Other symptoms may also include diarrhoea, stomach pain, sickness, chest pain, bleeding from the nose and/or gums, and conjunctivitis (eye infection). One of the problems in detecting avian flu is that birds infected with the virus can show no initial symptoms.

What biologic factors influence bird migration behavior?

However, the intrinsic (e.g., hormonal) and extrinsic (e.g., geographic cues) biologic features that influence bird migratory behavior differ between spring and autumn migration, leading to variation in habitat selection, habitat use, and behavioral divergence between the seasons.

Why do bird crashes happen in football stadiums?

Even less-glassy stadiums with extensive lighting may cause numerous collisions because intense nighttime lighting confuses nocturnally migrating birds, altering their flight paths, bringing them closer to the ground, and elevating collision risk [ 27 ].

Why do collision fatalities vary among species?

We also found variation in collision correlates between spring and fall migration and among bird species, that factors influencing collision fatalities also influence numbers of species colliding, and that the proportion, and potentially area, of glass lighted at night are associated with collisions.

How do we measure bird collision risk in wind farms?

To estimate collision risk, this probability is multiplied by the number of birds passing through the wind farm, at heights overlapping with the turbine blades, and the proportion likely to take action to avoid collision (known as the avoidance rate).

How many birds are killed by wind farms each day?

Collision rate, after correction for retrieval and disappearance rate, was 0.08 birds per turbine per day on average (range 0.05–0.19). Collision risk, i.e. the number of victims relative to the flight intensity of birds at the wind farms, was 0.14% on average.

Do wind turbines collide with birds?

We studied collision rate of birds with modern, large 1.65 MW wind turbines in three wind farms in The Netherlands during three months in autumn and winter. Collision rate, after correction for retrieval and disappearance rate, was 0.08 birds per turbine per day on average (range 0.05–0.19).

Can kernel utilization distribution (KUD) predict bird collisions with wind turbines?

We used kernel utilization distribution (KUD), for the first time, to understand the plausible collision risk between wind turbines and bird occurrence. Our results demonstrate the advantage of 3D KUD for modeling 3D space use by birds and, in particular, the comparative risk of a bird colliding with a turbine.

How many buildings have we monitored for bird collisions?

We conducted bird collision monitoring over four migration seasons at 21 buildings, including a large multi-use stadium, in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

Which buildings cause the most bird collisions?

In a study of 21 buildings over four migration seasons in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, we documented substantial variation among buildings in numbers of bird collisions, with four large buildings causing the majority of collisions, including a large multi-use stadium, which ranked third for most estimates.