Birds and buildings have never been a good combination, as facility owners and managers have known for decades. Bird strikes are common occurrences in many areas where structures interfere with migratory patterns. While some collisions kill a relatively small number of birds, other events kill hundreds of birds, as demonstrated by the recent case of McCormick Place Lakeside Center in Chicago.
Now a new study recently published in the journal PLOS ONE has quantified the devastating total number of birds killed by collisions with buildings annually. The study estimates over 1 billion birds die from building collisions in the United States each year, according to WABI.
The study looked at injured birds taken to wildlife rehabilitation centers to assess their survival rates. It found that most birds injured from hitting buildings do not recover. Researchers said the death toll is probably much higher among birds in the wild.
“These findings, along with our estimate of delayed mortality, suggest that overall collision mortality estimates based on carcass collection far exceed one billion birds in the U.S. each year,” according to the study, which examined the wildlife rehabilitation records of over 3,100 building collisions with 152 different avian species collected across multiple seasons.
Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.
