Birds hit by cars

[patsyquinn]

My husband heard a question on the radio a few days ago - why do birds sit in the road until the last minute, risking being hit by a car? He didn't hear the answer and wants to know.

[heathfield]

Didn't hear the programme, but I know it's because they can't properly judge the speed of a car coming at them. Worst affected are birds that normally live away from roads and people, like the waxwings from northern Scandinavia that migrate here.

[lankeela]

They are playing 'chicken'.

[Lonnie]

I drive trains, and Pigeons are the same, I hit on average one a day, and thats just my trains,

As Heathfield says, they can't judge the speed, and Pigeons ar notoriously slow on take off.

I feel for them, but there's not much I can do about it.

[patsyquinn]

Thank you all for your answers. I wondered if it was a seasonal thing as they don't do it all the time. I imagined that they are slow after the night spent roosting in trees and they're on the ground first thing looking for their breakfast. When a car comes their muscles aren't warmed up enough to move fast. That's just my theory!

[funkylad20]

Or more possibly due to young birds being unaware as older birds. Either way, I failed my first driving test for refusing to 'carry on, they'll move out of the way'
;o)

[wildwood]

An interesting theory patsyquinn, but birds don't need to warm up in the morning. They are homeothermic and have a constant body temperature of around 39c. to 40c.
Their binocular field of vision is mostly limited to about half of humans but in that view they can see better than us, although there are exceptions.
When feeding, their binocular vision is aimed at the ground and, although they can see a car coming in their periphiral vision, they don't realise how fast it goes.
Road-wise birds are rarely hit unless it is windy.

[patsyquinn]

Thank you 'Wildwood' - quite apart from this query I'm interested in birds so it's another bit of information.