UNM scientists find blue light makes buildings more deadly to migrating birds
April 11, 2024 - Steve Carr
Bird collisions with buildings are nothing new, but a new study by scientists at The University of New Mexico sheds light on a potential cause.
The study, "Disentangling the biotic and abiotic drivers of bird-building collisions in a tropical Asian city using geological niche modeling," led by UNM scientists David Tan and Nicholas Freymueller, was recently published in the journal Conservation Biology. It presents a novel finding revealing that night-migrating birds are at greater risk of colliding with buildings lit up with high levels of blue light at night, a factor that has not been extensively studied before.
The phenomenon is global, but significant gaps exist in our understanding of bird-building collisions. In North America, where the vast majority of bird collision studies have been conducted, between 365 million and 988 million are estimated to die from building collisions every year, mostly involving migratory birds. According to the study, only a small number of studies have focused on the tropics, especially the Asian and African tropics, and very little is known about where and why birds collide with buildings in these parts of the world.
Full Story at UNM Newsroom
