Species Composition Of Birds Colliding With Noise Barriers In Białystok (North-Eastern Poland)

Abstract

Abstract Until now in Poland there was no relevant data about the species composition of birds colliding with reflective plate glass in building construction and noise barriers. The research was conducted in 2010-2012. For the first two years the research was conducted only in breeding season, field control was carried out from 2 to 5 days. Since November 2011 an all year-long monitoring was started and the area was controlled once a week. In winter 2011/12 and spring 2012 there was conducted an experiment on time of carrion loss. In total there were 269 dead birds representing 43 species. The victims of window strikes were mainly common species, small or medium size passerines, residing and foraging in the low vegetation up to several meters above the ground (89%). According to the status of the species: 55% were resident or partially resident, 38% were short-distance migrants and 7% were long-distance migrants. At the base of the experiment on speed of carrion loss (N = 30), it was found that 17% of dead birds were removed after 1 week, 43% after 2 weeks and 23% after 3 weeks. There were 4 injured and stupefied birds found, despite the first aid all birds died from 3 to 48 hours after collision.