Action

Action Synopsis: Bird Conservation About Actions

Use lights low in spectral red to reduce mortality from artificial lights

How is the evidence assessed?
  • Effectiveness
    56%
  • Certainty
    15%
  • Harms
    0%

Key messages

Two studies from the North Sea and the Netherlands found that fewer birds were attracted to low-red lights (including green and blue lights), compared with the number expected, or the number attracted to white or red lights.

 

About key messages

Key messages provide a descriptive index to studies we have found that test this intervention.

Studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. When making decisions based on this evidence, you should consider factors such as study size, study design, reported metrics and relevance of the study to your situation, rather than simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation.

Supporting evidence from individual studies

  1. A study on an oil rig in the southern North Sea on three nights in October 2007 (van de Laar 2007) found that the number of migrating birds circling the rig was 10-50% of the number expected when the majority of external lights were replaced with ‘low red’ bulbs (150-2,500 birds observed circling vs. 750-5,000 birds expected). Low red bulbs emit lower levels of red light than standard bulbs. Attracted birds were mainly songbirds, waders and wildfowl and expected numbers were estimated based on previous observations and calculated from the number of migrating birds recorded on nearby islands, the number observed from the rig and the weather conditions.

    Study and other actions tested
  2. A replicated, controlled study from Friesland, the Netherlands (Poot et al. 2008), in September-November 2003, found that on clear nights, significantly fewer migrating birds were attracted to two 1,000 W lamps when they were covered with opaque white or red filters (61% of 38 birds and 54% of 13 birds reacting to each), compared with green (13% of eight) or blue (3% of 37) filters. The same pattern, but with higher overall levels of attraction were detected on overcast nights (white: 81% of 156 birds reacting; red: 54% of 24; green: 27% of 77; blue: 5% of 38).

    Study and other actions tested
Please cite as:

Williams, D.R., Child, M.F., Dicks, L.V., Ockendon, N., Pople, R.G., Showler, D.A., Walsh, J.C., zu Ermgassen, E.K.H.J. & Sutherland, W.J. (2020) Bird Conservation. Pages 137-281 in: W.J. Sutherland, L.V. Dicks, S.O. Petrovan & R.K. Smith (eds) What Works in Conservation 2020. Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK.

 

Where has this evidence come from?

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Bird Conservation

This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Bird Conservation
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What Works in Conservation

What Works in Conservation provides expert assessments of the effectiveness of actions, based on summarised evidence, in synopses. Subjects covered so far include amphibians, birds, mammals, forests, peatland and control of freshwater invasive species. More are in progress.

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