Exploring the impact of litter on bird behaviour and survival
The research is looking at how bird populations are affected by litter. Image: Supplied
A new study aims to shed light on the varied and often harmful interactions between birds and litter and explore behaviours ranging from ingestion and entanglement to the use of human-made materials for nesting.
While these interactions are widespread, PhD candidate at Federation’s Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI) Hannah Faraone says how bird populations are affected by litter remains largely unknown, particularly in land-based ecosystems.
As human and animal habitats increasingly overlap, research is becoming more important to help determine the impact litter has on bird survival, health and other factors like reproductive success.
“Birds are fascinating, they're such curious animals and are so smart in a lot of different ways and in addition to that, litter is everywhere,” Ms Faraone said.
“The study has stemmed from that – that bird–litter interactions are something that you can often see by looking out your window. We’ve got these amazing animals and then we have these littered environments and there are species that are adapting and there are those that aren’t doing as well.”
The project is drawing on contributions from citizen scientists, with geo-located images analysed to determine what types of interactions are occurring and which species are involved.
The Litter Bird-en website has been created for the project, and citizen scientists can upload images of birds interacting with litter there, as well as follow the project’s progress. The website sits within the Atlas of Living Australia, a collaborative, digital, open infrastructure that pulls together Australian biodiversity data from multiple sources, making it accessible and reusable.
“We are aware from the images that there are other ways that birds interact with litter. Bowerbirds have used litter to attract mates to their bower. Other birds have been using rubbish as tools,” Ms Faraone said.
“There are also scavenger birds who will go through any food-related take-away rubbish whenever people leave food and other plastic and rubbish around.”
The researchers have also witnessed cockatoos and corellas playing with litter, including a group of corellas throwing around an empty cigarette packet as they would normally play with a tuft of grass.
“We want to know why that's happening, what they're doing with the litter and if we can learn more about that, we can move on to what the impact of that is,” Ms Faraone said.
“By creating a database, we’ll get records and then move into what those impacts are. There are some very obvious ones, like entanglement, where there are injuries and in worst cases mortalities.
“But it might not always be a negative result. So we need to look at the other consequences as well. The interaction is the top level – before we can figure out what impacts there are, we really need to know what they're doing in the first place.”
Ms Faraone’s previous research has focussed on pollution in the environment, including the impact on macroinvertebrates in wetlands. The project continues her interest in the interaction of pollution in the environment and the different ways that ecosystems are impacted by human activity.
This research builds on previous work by CeRDI and the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) to develop the LitterWatch Victoria program, a state-government initiative designed to support community litter monitoring in Port Phillip and provide information for policy formulation. The PhD includes a three-month internship with DEECA that will involve supporting the management and maintenance of the LitterWatch portal.
She says the opportunity to complete the research with CeRDI has allowed her to develop new skills for the PhD, tapping into CeRDI’s expertise in developing advanced information and communication technologies.
“I have been learning a lot about coding at the moment for another chapter of the PhD which has been an incredible skill to learn,” she said.
“And working with citizen scientists has been fantastic - I'm really grateful for that opportunity and that was something coming into the PhD that I wanted to do. With other chapters, I am also lucky enough to be able to develop both field and lab-based skills.”
Ms Faraone hopes the findings from this research will provide vital information for policymakers and conservationists, guiding the development of effective strategies to mitigate the risks that plastic pollution poses to birdlife.
“People want to know what they can do to better protect these birds, but we don’t know enough about what the birds are doing to begin with,” she said.
“If we can go back to the start or as close to the start as possible and learn more about the birds’ interaction with litter and work from there, it will become easier to create the advice and the recommendations to help them.”