4 votes

Skyscrapers are killing up to 1bn birds a year in US, scientists estimate

4 comments

  1. [4]
    nsz
    Link
    I Listened to a BBC podcasts; 'more or less' a wile ago where they discussed this statistic, vaguely remember it stemming for some misinterpreted research that seems to constantly capture the...

    I Listened to a BBC podcasts; 'more or less' a wile ago where they discussed this statistic, vaguely remember it stemming for some misinterpreted research that seems to constantly capture the media-machine's attention.

    Here's the episode. Starts at 19:50, they give this in the episode description: 'do a billion birds die each year by flying into buildings? We explain another zombie statistic which refuses to die.'

    4 votes
    1. [3]
      Cosmos
      Link Parent
      Yeah, just using common sense raises questions about the accuracy of that number. If a billion birds are being killed by skyscrapers, you'd think you would come across a lot more dead birds lying...

      Yeah, just using common sense raises questions about the accuracy of that number. If a billion birds are being killed by skyscrapers, you'd think you would come across a lot more dead birds lying on the streets.

      2 votes
      1. [2]
        cfabbro
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        There are 2,715 buildings over 100m tall in the US, according to this. 1,000,000,000 / 2,715 = ≈368,324 368,324 / 365 = ≈1,009 dead birds per day, per skyscraper Yeah, something doesn't seem to...

        There are 2,715 buildings over 100m tall in the US, according to this.

        1,000,000,000 / 2,715 = ≈368,324
        368,324 / 365 = ≈1,009 dead birds per day, per skyscraper

        Yeah, something doesn't seem to add up here. That's a lot of corpses for people not to notice, even if every city/building had super efficient cleaning crews.

        Even the lower estimate (100,000,000 / 2,715 / 365 = ≈101 dead birds per day, per skyscraper) is still a lot not to notice, IMO, but slightly more realistic I suppose.

        3 votes