Abstract Collisions with buildings annually kill up to 1 billion birds in the United States. Bird-building collisions primarily occur at glass surfaces: birds often fail to perceive glass as a barrier and appear to be attracted to artificial light emitted from windows. However, some aspects of avian vision are poorly understood, including how bird responses to different types of light influence building collisions. Some evidence suggests birds can detect polarized light, which may serve as a cue to assist with migration orientation and/or detect water bodies. Dark, reflective surfaces, including glass, reflect high degrees of polarized light, causing polarized light pollution (PLP). However, no studies have analyzed the relationship between bird collisions and PLP reflected from buildings. Additionally, while artificial light at night (ALAN) is frequently implicated as a major factor influencing bird-building collisions, few studies have analyzed this relationship. We investigated both types of light pollution—PLP and ALAN—and their association with bird collisions at 48 facades of 13 buildings in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. We found that the area of glass emitting ALAN was the most important factor influencing collisions, and that this effect of ALAN was independent of overall glass area; this result provides strong support for turning off lights at night to reduce bird-building collisions. Although we found no relationship between PLP and collisions, additional research is needed to better understand bird responses to polarized light. Fully understanding how different aspects of light influence bird-building collisions can inform conservation efforts to reduce this major threat to birds.

中文翻译：

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夜间人造夜光和偏振光对鸟类碰撞的影响

摘要 在美国，与建筑物的碰撞每年导致多达 10 亿只鸟类死亡。鸟类碰撞主要发生在玻璃表面：鸟类通常无法将玻璃视为屏障，而似乎被窗户发出的人造光所吸引。然而，鸟类视觉的某些方面知之甚少，包括鸟类对不同类型光的反应如何影响建筑物碰撞。一些证据表明鸟类可以检测到偏振光，这可以作为帮助迁移方向和/或检测水体的线索。黑暗的反光表面（包括玻璃）反射高度偏振光，导致偏振光污染 (PLP)。然而，没有研究分析鸟类碰撞与建筑物反射的 PLP 之间的关系。此外，虽然夜间人造光 (ALAN) 经常被认为是影响鸟类碰撞的主要因素，但很少有研究分析这种关系。我们在美国明尼苏达州明尼阿波利斯市的 13 座建筑物的 48 个立面上调查了两种类型的光污染——PLP 和 ALAN——以及它们与鸟类碰撞的关联。我们发现玻璃发射 ALAN 的面积是影响碰撞的最重要因素，并且 ALAN 的这种影响与整体玻璃面积无关；这一结果为夜间关灯以减少鸟类碰撞提供了强有力的支持。尽管我们发现 PLP 与碰撞之间没有关系，但还需要进行额外的研究以更好地了解鸟类对偏振光的反应。