Variable effects of blade black-and-white designs on detection of turbine rotation by birds
Abstract
This dataset contains behavioral responses of birds in an operant conditioning test. Individuals from three species [pigeons (Columba livia), black kites (Milvus migrans), and griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus)] were repeatedly tested across multiple sessions and trials. In each trial, birds were presented with two miniature wind turbines: one stationary and one rotating, positioned on either the left or right side. The experimental setup varied several visual and environmental factors, including the background (dark grey or light grey), the visual pattern of the turbines (white, black, striped, or checkered), and the rotation speed of the rotating turbine (measured in rotations per minute). For each trial, the dataset records the position of the stationary turbine, the choice made by the bird (left or right), whether the stationary turbine was selected, and the time taken to make the decision.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.kprr4xhm3
Description of the data and file structure
This dataset contains behavioral responses of birds in an operant conditioning test, where individuals chose between a stationary and a rotating miniature wind turbine. It includes information on species, experimental conditions, choices, and decision times.
Files and variables
File: data.csv
Description:
Variables
- date: date of the trial in YYYYMMDD format
- species: bird species tested ["pigeon" (Columba livia), "kite" (Milvus migrans), or "vulture" (Gyps fulvus)]
- individual: bird individual name
- background: background color behind the miniature wind turbines ("darkgrey" or "lightgrey")
- session: session number for each individual (integer; individuals were tested across multiple sessions)
- trial: trial number within each session
- stationary_side: side where the stationary miniature wind turbine was located ("left" or "right")
- pattern: visual pattern of the turbine ("white", "black", "striped", or "checkered")
- rotation_speed: rotation speed of the moving turbine in rotations per minute
- choice_side: side chosen by the bird ("left" or "right")
- chose_stationary: binary variable, 1 if the bird chose the stationary turbine, 0 if it chose the rotating turbine
- decision_time: time taken by the bird to make a choice, in seconds ('NA' indicates unavailable data: for pigeons, two trials were affected by a timing issue; for the vulture, decision time could not be measured during the trials).