LTA puts up frosted strips at Dairy Farm bus stops, days after birds seen crashing into clear panels

While he was reporting the sighting to the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum – which has a hotline for dead bird reports that can aid in research – three Asian glossy starlings crashed into the panels, Mr Tan said then. 

Two of the starlings recovered quickly and flew away, while the third feathered creature appeared dazed. It opened and shut its eyes periodically for about five minutes before it could stand upright on its feet, he added.

When a volunteer from the museum went to retrieve the carcass of the male pigeon, she found another dead female green pigeon in the area.

This brought the crash count to five birds within 24 hours, said the museum’s assistant senior curator of birds Tan Yen Yi, who helms the hotline. Since late 2019, Dr Tan said she has recorded 45 reports of dead birds found near bus stops. 

On the latest measure by LTA, Mr Tan said he was thankful to the authorities for taking action.

He had gone back to the bus stop where he first observed the collisions at about 3.30pm on Nov 21, and noticed that the decals on it were slightly different from the other three bus stops.

That bus stop had full-panel decals of different levels of translucency, whereas the other three bus stops featured frosted strips with spacings in between, he added.

He said he hopes that the authority will monitor which of these sticker designs are more effective at preventing bird collisions, adding that they have an “aesthetic look”.

Collisions like these could happen as birds may not be able to perceive the clear panels as barriers, experts say.

The phenomenon of birds crashing into buildings is not unique to Singapore. Every year, billions of birds die after smashing into glass buildings that they cannot see or from exhaustion as a result of getting confused by city lights.

Experts said that clear panels can reflect the surrounding trees and sky and birds may perceive them as a clear flight path.

Birds that are more at risk of such collisions include fruit-eating birds that live on the edges of the country’s forests such as green pigeons, emerald doves and starlings as they move between trees to forage, according to Dr David Tan, postdoctoral research fellow at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research.

Another possible reason for the bird crash is “reflection aggression” – where a bird attacks its own reflection, thinking that the reflection is a rival bird, said Ms Veronica Foo, who chairs the bird group of environmental group Nature Society Singapore.

NParks in 2022 published some guidelines and recommendations for such visual markers.

For example, the ideal marker should have a maximum spacing of 5cm by 5cm with minimum diameter of 0.5cm for circular openings. It should also be highly contrasted and applied on at least 85 per cent of all the exterior glass surfaces within the first 12m of the building above the planted tree height. 

The NParks report also said that decals and stickers are cost-effective and short-term methods to reduce bird strikes. 

For dead bird reporting, the public can contact the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum’s Dead Bird Hotline on +65-9876-4997 on WhatsApp or @deadbirdhotline on Telegram.