Roadkill risk in European birds: The role of detection and plumage colouration

Wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) are a significant cause of mortality among European birds. This poses a threat to the conservation of birds because pervasive human-related structures, such as road networks, are expected to expand over the continent in the next few decades. For this reason, a good understanding of the traits that make a bird species more vulnerable to being killed through a collision with a vehicle is essential. Traits such as body mass, plumage colouration, boldness, and behavioural characteristics can shape roadkill risks. Here, we first tested the presence of a phylogenetic signal in the roadkill rate of a pool of 55 European birds. Then, we explored the potential correlation between roadkill rate and several ecological characteristics of species. Overall, the incidence of casualties among bird species does not covary with phylogeny. Territoriality, body size, migratory strategy and diet were not significantly associated with roadkill rates in European birds. Howev..., , # Roadkill risk in European birds: The role of detection and plumage colouration

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.3r2280gv1](10.5061/dryad.3r2280gv1)

## Description of the data and file structure

Dataset with ecological characteristics of birds, roadkill rate, and plumage colouration as described in Delhey et al. 2023.

### Files and variables

#### File: dataset_Morelli_Benedetti_2025_roadkill_and_colours.csv

**Description:** 

##### Variables

Variable Detail Source

Species: Species name [https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1](https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1)

Common name: English name [https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1](https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1)

Roadkill rate: Roadkill rate corrected is the number of individuals killed per kilometre of road per year for each species, corrected by accounting for the carcass persistence probability [https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2216](https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2216)

IUCN.category: Extinct (EX), Extinct in the Wild (EW), Critically Endangered (...,