Assessing bird collisions in the United Kingdom: Modelling frequency of bird-strike from road and rail mortality using a Bayesian hierarchical approach

Abstract

Roads are an important way to transport people and goods, but they sometimes have negative impacts on wildlife. One of the leading causes of mortality for several species is identified as road strikes, and the most significant remains bird-vehicle collisions. This study aimed to investigate what species of birds are most affected, and what other factors impact in their susceptibility in road collisions, such as age, sex, season, and type of transports. A total of N=5413 records, and 140 bird species were documented by BTO ringers. For analysis four Bayesian Hierarchical Models were used, with random effects results showing that Barn owls were most affected by collisions. Road mortality presents the highest cause of mortality among species when contrasted with rail mortality. Age and sexual bias was detected across all species, however juveniles and males did appear to be prominent in relation to other age classes. Winter and early spring were the months with most reported casualties and 2016 had lower abundance of mortality across the 10-year period. 75% of birds were found within a week, which may indicate some bias interference from scavenging animals, as true figures could be up to 16 times more. This study discusses some mitigation measures found in current research, that could dramatically reduce numbers of birds affected each year by road mortality.