Bird use of grain fields and implications for habitat management at airports

Abstract

A B S T R A C TAirport properties often include agricultural land cover that can attract wildlife species hazardous to aircraft, despite recommendations against row crops near air operations areas. However, few studies have directly quantified bird use of corn, wheat, and soybean fields relative to bird-aircraft collision (strike) hazard levels to support land cover recommendations. Therefore, we compared bird use among corn, wheat and soybean fields and predicted that corn and wheat would attract bird species recognized as hazardous to aviation. We also anticipated that soybeans would pose minimal attraction to such birds. Here, hazard ranking (low to extremely high) reflects the percentage of strikes involving a species that resulted in damage to aircraft. We investigated bird use among 22 corn, wheat, and soybean fields near Oak Harbor, OH, using approximately weekly point transects from 2013 to 2014. We used generalized distance sampling models and analysis of variance using distance matrices to determine bird abundance and community responses to row crop land coverages and crop height. We observed 4331 birds of 40 species, with most birds observed in wheat fields (n = 2555 birds) and standing stubble (n = 2409 birds). Large flocks occurred more in corn and wheat fields than soybean fields, but soybean fields harbored greater cumulative hazard scores than corn, likely due to consistent detections of small, non-flocking birds in soybean fields. Crop type and height had greater influence on medium-and high-hazard level bird species than other hazard levels. Density of medium-and high-hazard level birds increased with increasing crop height in soybean and wheat fields with wheat fields having slightly greater densities than soybeans. Corn fields also had the greatest bird densities in the tallest crop height categories. Categories of very and extremely high-hazard level bird species were rarely detected, but their abundance peaked in crops 0-15 cm, similar to low-hazard level bird species. However, model selection results included null models for very and extremely high-hazard level bird species suggesting minimal effects. Overall, our results suggest that all three crop types can harbor birds hazardous to aircraft, and crop height can enhance bird use. Although not directly tested in our study, land management surrounding airports may benefit most from alternative land covers (e.g., biofuel crops), but additional research is necessary.

The dynamics of fauna and population of birds in agricultural landscapes on the border of Kazan International Airport

“…Interestingly, the values of this parameter obtained for the same period turned out to be several times higher in the adjacent small forest habitats [8]. The population density of birds staying in agricultural lands during and, especially, after the nesting period was mainly dependent on the field-grown crop species and the extent of their harvesting, as well as the presence of forest belts adding tree, shrub, and marginal species to the complex of plants [9,10].…”

The role of landscape in shaping bird community and implications for landscape management at Nanjing Lukou International Airport

“…Many studies concentrate on the primary variables underlying biodiversity near the airport in order to prevent bird strikes (Conkling et al, 2018). Biotic or abiotic factors, for instance, crop types, vegetation composition, food availability, and landscape structure, are proven to affect community composition at the airport (Alquezar et al, 2020; Iglay et al, 2017; Pennell et al, 2016). Among the factors mentioned above, landscape structure is relatively less studied in the airport area.…”

Conceptual design of a gliding UAV for bird strike prevention and observation

“…In the study conducted in Namibia, the pilots were asked to list the birds they saw, and the species determined in the field studies were classified as small (0–300 g), medium (0.3–1 kg) and large (over 1 kg) according to their weight (Hauptfleisch and Avenant, 2016). As the airports are located far from the city, the impact of the surrounding agricultural areas and the control and rehabilitation of these agricultural areas are also very important (Iglay et al , 2017; Swaddle et al , 2016). The evaluation of the regions where the airports are located is not only the diversity and density of birds but also the zoogeography (Marateo et al , 2015).…”