Study uncovers bird-litter interactions

A NEW study by Federation University PhD candidate Hannah Faraone is highlighting the often-harmful interactions between birds and litter.

The study examines behaviours such as ingestion, entanglement and using human-made materials for nesting, but ultimately Ms Faraone said that the effects of litter on bird populations are largely unknown,

“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.”

Ms Faraone is a PhD candidate at FedUni’s Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI) and the project includes contributions of geo-located images from citizen scientists.

Through the creation of the Litter Bird-en website, citizen scientists uploaded images of birds interacting with litter.

“We are aware from the images that there are other ways that birds interact with litter,” Ms Faraone said.

“Bowerbirds have used litter to attract mates to their bower. Other birds have been using rubbish as tools.

“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.”

Cockatoos and corellas were also witnessed playing with litter.

“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.”

Previous work by CeRDI and the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) has included the development of the LitterWatch Victoria program, a State Government initiative that supports community litter monitoring in Port Phillip.

As part of the PhD, Ms Faraone is completing a three-month internship with DEECA relating to the LitterWatch portal.

“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 said she hopes her research will help policymakers and conservationists.

“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.”