Online Talk: Why do Birds Fall Out of the Sky?

Online Talk: Why do Birds Fall Out of the Sky? (conducted on Zoom on 16 October 2021)

Speaker :    Mr David Tan

Host:           Hosted on Zoom by Dr Yong Ding Li (Bird Group) and Mr Timothy Pwee (Education Committee) on behalf of Nature Society (Singapore)

Talk Synopsis
Bird-building collisions are estimated to kill up to 1 billion birds annually in the United States. Outside of the US, this phenomenon is poorly understood. Why do birds knock into buildings? What species are the most vulnerable to building collisions? Join David Tan in this talk as he presents the results of a 7-year long citizen science study conducted in Singapore, exploring where, when, and why birds collide with buildings. As one of the first studies conducted in Asia, it provides useful insights into how we can reduce the number of bird-building collisions in Singapore, and make our city a bird-friendly one. The talk will wrap with a Q&A segment.

Speaker Biography
Mr David Tan is a PhD student at the University of New Mexico and the Museum of Southwestern Biology. He is currently studying the biogeography of the genus Pitta. As Singapore's former ‘Dead Bird Man’, he has been collating records of dead birds from across Singapore in the last 7 years as part of a long-running citizen science initiative.