Session: Communities: Disturbance And Recovery - PS 16
Analyzing fatal bird-window collisions occurring on USU’s C&SS Building, Brigham City, Utah
Tuesday, August 3, 2021
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Jacob Larkin, Taylor Kenyon, Hunter Martin and Braxton Martin, Biology, Utah State University, Logan, UT, Madeline Jensen, Maria Scott, Cristian Soto and Jessica Habashi, Biology, Utah State University, Brigham City, UT
Presenting Author(s)
Jacob Larkin
Biology, Utah State University Logan, UT, USA
Background/Question/Methods In the U. S. between 365 - 988 million birds fatally collide with man-made windows annually, thus, windows are a major cause for nationwide bird conservation concerns. Our study was focused on this ecological concern. In our study, we are investigating fatal bird-window collisions occurring on the Classroom and Student Services Building (C&SS) at the Utah State University campus in Brigham City, UT. The objective of the study was to: Investigate the number of fatal bird window collisions that occur on the C&SS, then determine if our findings were larger than the expected number of fatal window collisions per month for a low-rise non-residential building (0 – 6 collisions per month). If our findings showed that the C&SS exceeded the typical number of collisions per month, we could suggest mitigation methods to campus administrators. The objective was accomplished through a two-step method. First, we analyzed data obtained through the conduction of daily surveys of the C&SS during the months of August through November of 2020. Surveyors looked for bird-window collision evidence on the building’s windows such as a bird body imprint on the window. We then collated our data with similarly obtained survey data collected in the years 2017-2019.
Results/Conclusions We found that the monthly fatal bird-window collisions on the C&SS fell between 0 and 4 in the targeted months of years 2017 – 2020, which is not outside the expected range of 0 to 6. Despite not falling outside expected numbers, our survey data only covered a portion of each of the years. As such, starting in August 2020, a 12-month window collision survey has begun. The 12-month data will be used to obtain a clearer picture on if there are times or is a time of year that the C&SS represents a significant problem area for bird-window collisions.