Date: April 1, 2019
Source: Cornell University
An
estimated 600 million birds die from building collisions every year in the
U.S., and research from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers one explanation
for it.
A team
led by Kyle Horton, a Rose postdoctoral fellow at the lab, ranked metropolitan
areas where, due to a combination of light pollution and geography, birds are
at the greatest risk of becoming attracted to and disoriented by lights and
crashing into buildings.
Among
their findings: While migration routes vary depending on the season, the same
three large cities in the central U.S. -- Chicago, Houston and Dallas -- top
both the spring and autumn lists of most dangerous for migrating birds.
"Those
three cities are uniquely positioned in the heart of North America's most
trafficked aerial corridors. This, in combination with being some of the
largest cities in the U.S., makes them a serious threat to the passage of
migrants, regardless of season," Horton said.
Research
associate Andrew Farnsworth is senior author of "Bright Lights in the Big
Cities: Migratory Birds' Exposure to Artificial Light," published April 1
in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. The work combines
satellite data showing light pollution levels with weather radar data measuring
bird migration density.
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