A community about the variety of life on Earth at all levels; including plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi.
Notice Board
This is a work in progress, please don't mind the mess.
2023-06-16: We invite our users to contribute resources for the sidebar.
2023-06-15: Looking for mods!
About
Biodiversity is a term used to describe the enormous variety of life on Earth. It can be used more specifically to refer to all of the species in one region or ecosystem. Biodiversity refers to every living thing, including plants, bacteria, animals, and humans. Scientists have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species of plants and animals in existence. However, only around 1.2 million species have been identified and described so far, most of which are insects. This means that millions of other organisms remain a complete mystery.
Over generations, all of the species that are currently alive today have evolved unique traits that make them distinct from other species. These differences are what scientists use to tell one species from another. Organisms that have evolved to be so different from one another that they can no longer reproduce with each other are considered different species. All organisms that can reproduce with each other fall into one species. Read more...
Rules
Quick Links
Resources
Bypass Paywalls
Find us on Reddit!
This year, at least 1,000 birds died in one day from colliding with a single glass-covered building.
Are there, like, piles of bird corpses at the bottom of these buildings? Is it a full time job just to walk around the building over and over with a snow shovel and a trash cart to prevent piles of bird corpses?
I've walked in cities around the world, and have never actually seen a dead bird on the ground? I've seen plenty on rural sidewalks, though. 🤔
Assuming a 16-hour day for activity, that's just over a bird a minute. Given the flocking behaviour of many species, that might mean occasional "rainfalls" of dead and injured birds.
Here's a 99 Percent Invisible podcast episode about bird-safe buildings. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/murder-most-fowl/
An organization is interviewed in the episode, and they talk about sending people around in the morning to collect and count dead birds, at least occasionally for a survey.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
As awareness grows of the dangers posed by glistening towers and bright lights, architects are starting to reimagine city skylines to design buildings that are both aesthetically daring and bird-safe.
After several years of investigation, she found there was little in the way of practical tips for architects, and she teamed up with the conservation group NYC Audubon, to develop a bird-safe building guide.
About a decade ago, Piselli’s firm worked on a half-billion-dollar renovation of New York’s Jacob K Javits Convention Center, a gleaming glass-clad space frame structure that was killing 4,000-5,000 birds a year.
In the Netherlands, the facade of the World Wildlife Fund headquarters, a futuristic structure that looks like an undulating blob of mercury, contains nest boxes and spaces for birds and bats to live.
Earlier this year, Azadeh Omidfar Sawyer, an assistant professor in building technology in the Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture, developed open-source software to help designers create bespoke, bird-friendly glass patterns.
Whether they’re large or small, the challenge of designing buildings that are safe for birds can be “liberating”, said Gang, who has become an avid birdwatcher and now carries a pair of binoculars on her morning jogs.
The original article contains 1,382 words, the summary contains 196 words. Saved 86%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!