Data from: Nocturnal flight-calling behaviour predicts vulnerability to artificial light in migratory birds

Understanding interactions between biota and the built environment is
increasingly important as human modification of the landscape expands in
extent and intensity. For migratory birds, collisions with lighted
structures are a major cause of mortality, but the mechanisms behind these
collisions are poorly understood. Using 40 years of collision records of
passerine birds, we investigated the importance of species’ behavioral
ecologies in predicting rates of building collisions during nocturnal
migration through Chicago, IL and Cleveland, OH, USA. We found that use of
nocturnal flight calls is an important predictor of collision risk in
nocturnally migrating passerine birds. Species that produce flight calls
during nocturnal migration collided with buildings more than expected
given their local abundance, whereas those that do not use such
communication collided much less frequently. Our results suggest that a
stronger attraction response to artificial light at night in species that
produce flight calls may mediate these differences in collision rates.
Nocturnal flight calls likely evolved to facilitate collective
decision-making during navigation, but this same social behavior may now
exacerbate vulnerability to a widespread anthropogenic disturbance. Our
results also suggest that social behavior during migration may reflect
poorly-understood differences in navigational mechanisms across lineages
of birds.