Road Ecology Center

Bird strikes have been known for a long time as a severe negative effect of vehicular traffic. While the phenomenon has been studied for a couple of decades, the prevention of road kills has not been solved yet reassuringly. Of the several methods applied to reduce the collision risk, this study examined solid bird-protection walls that are pitched to raise the flight path of the small songbirds that cross the road. Most specifically, the study examines the effects of applying bird-protection walls on the number of bird strikes and on the behavior of birds. The research area was situated along a four-lane motorway in Eastern Hungary, Central Europe. Extensive fieldwork was carried out in order to map the local breeding and migrant avifauna and to learn their substantial reactions to the barriers in their flying path. In parallel with observing live birds, road kills were also registered during the whole period of the study. The collected data were analyzed in function of the location of walls, of the relevant bird habitats, and of the technical parameters of the examined road section. The results? Some issues related to road kills and identified the group of the most-threatened bird species. Several causes of the high risk of bird strikes could be determined and, surprisingly, none of them seemed to be handled efficiently by building these types of physical barriers. The final results of the study are expected to become public at the end of the year.