Laurie Knight asked "Is there any data that indicates that birds flying into
buildings during
the night-time is a significant problem in Australia?"
No-one appears to have offered an opinion on this so here's my two bobs
worth.
Australia doesn't have the spectacular migration of birds that occurs in
the northern hemisphere. While the number of honeyeaters passing over the
Blue Mountains or along the Murrumbidgee River in the ACT might appear
spectacular to us it pales into insignificant against the number of birds
involved in migrations in the USA or Europe.
As a result, there are huge numbers of birds migrating at night killed by
collisions with a large range of structures illuminated by light in the
USA. This doesn't appear to happen to a great degree in Australia. The
only example I can think of at the moment is the lighthouse on Booby
Island in the Torres Straight. Even there number of birds striking this
structure is relatively insignificant when compared to the massive numbers
killed in the USA.
It worries me at times that opponents of wind powered turbines, for
example, in Australia often quote figures of bird strikes in the USA which
can be hugely misleading. I'm not putting forward any opinion regarding
this issue, I'm merely saying that bird migration in the northern
hemisphere is a very different affair to that we see here in Australia.
Cheers
David
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