Rural buildings pose greater threat to birds

Augustana professor of biology Dr. Stephen Hager is the lead author of a new paper that finds larger buildings in rural areas pose a greater threat to birds than if those buildings were in an urban area. About a billion birds are killed every year when they fly into buildings.

Such collisions are the largest unintended human cause of bird deaths worldwide — and they are a serious concern for conservationists.

The researchers think the differences between rural and urban settings might be related to how birds select habitats during migration, and differences in bird behavior between urban and rural populations. 

The paper is published in the journal Biological Conservation.

• Read more at the University of Washington and Dr. Hager's research page