Because birds see the world differently than humans do, researchers are working to determine how changes in aircraft external lighting systems might help avoid collisions between birds and aircraft.
“Some types of lighting may enhance the birds’ detection and visual tracking of aircraft at high speeds and, thus, [hold] some potential as a means of reducing the frequency of bird strikes,” a team of researchers wrote in a study published in The Condor: Ornithological Applications, the journal of the California-based Cooper Ornithological Society.1
The number of reported bird strikes has increased dramatically in recent years, according to data from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). A 2014 report showed a 6.1-fold increase in wildlife strikes between 1990, when 1,851 strikes were reported, and 2013, when 11,315 were reported (Figure 1). Of the 142,603 strikes over the 23-year period, 97 percent involved birds. The remaining 3 percent involved terr…
