Data and code from: Nocturnal flight call monitoring reveals in-flight behavioral alteration by avian migrants in response to artificial light at night
Data files
Sep 12, 2025 version files 210.44 MB
-
AllDurations2021.csv
1.29 MB
-
AllDurations2022.csv
1.63 MB
-
AllDurations2023.csv
1.83 MB
-
ALLNightCountsByStatusforGroups.csv
670.92 KB
-
ByFamilyByStatusByYear.csv
53.49 KB
-
Code_for_Osterhaus_et_al._(2025)_Biological_Conservation.Rmd
112.67 KB
-
CombinedCallsbyFamily.csv
40.60 KB
-
CombinedGroupFiles2021.csv
23.32 MB
-
CombinedGroupFiles2022.csv
53.22 MB
-
CombinedGroupFiles2023.csv
33.65 MB
-
CombinedSpeciesFiles2021.csv
14.57 MB
-
CombinedSpeciesFiles2022.csv
33.09 MB
-
CombinedSpeciesFiles2023.csv
20.78 MB
-
CovariateDatasetbyDecile2021.csv
5.71 MB
-
CovariateDatasetbyDecile2022.csv
7.34 MB
-
CovariateDatasetbyDecile2023.csv
13.08 MB
-
Nighthawk_Testing.xlsx
11.67 KB
-
README.md
8.66 KB
-
ShieldingData.xlsx
11.83 KB
-
SiteandLight_2021.xlsx
12.06 KB
-
SiteandLight_2022.xlsx
12.35 KB
-
SiteandLight_2023.xlsx
12.30 KB
-
SiteCoords.csv
5.50 KB
Abstract
The world in which birds evolved to migrate has been drastically altered in the Anthropocene by artificial light. Sources of light such as urban centers or bright upward-facing lights attract migrants, altering their behavior, especially during inclement weather, often leading to mortality. Seemingly less extreme sources, such as pole-mounted floodlighting ubiquitous throughout much of the world, have received comparatively less study, and migrant responses to such sources are poorly understood. We studied migrant behavior in relation to light at White Sands Missile Range (New Mexico, USA) by recording nocturnal flight calls at sites with and without lights during non-inclement weather. We collected 103,424 h of recordings and detected 2,851,863 calls over three fall migration seasons. We assessed how temporal, weather, and lighting variables explain variability in call rates between light and dark sites, and examined how different taxonomic groups behave in relation to light. Contrary to predictions, call rates were higher at dark sites than at light sites, and this difference was strongest early in the migration season. We found illuminated sites with a greater proportion of shielded lights, or with lights of higher dominant wavelengths (warmer color temperatures), had higher call rates (closely resembling dark sites) than other light sites, indicating that these factors may reduce impact to migrants. Our taxonomic analyses revealed consistent differences in call rate between light and dark sites for warblers, but no difference for most sparrows. Our findings indicate that lights alter behavior, but the use of “bird-friendly” lighting strategies may reduce this impact.
The code and datasets found herein correspond to the manuscript "Nocturnal flight call monitoring reveals in-flight behavioral alteration by avian migrants in response to artificial light at night" published in Biological Conservation. The code file (written in R Markdown) accesses each of the datasets included herein to reproduce the analyses of the related manuscript.
Dryad dataset
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.w6m905r26
Description of the data and file structure
The data and code included herein was used to assess in-flight avian behavioral responses to artificial light at night and included analyses of behavioral responses under a variety of weather, temporal, and lighting based variables, and taxonomic specific analyses of responses to light.
Files and variables
File: Code_for_Osterhaus_et_al._(2025)_Biological_Conservation.Rmd
Description: Code written in R Markdown that is used to access data included in this dataset and recreate the analyses associated with the related manuscript
File: AllDurations2021.csv / AllDurations2022.csv / File: AllDurations2023.csv
Description: Duration information for each of the acoustic recordings for 2021, 2022, 2023.
Variables
- filename: name associated with the specific recording file
- Duration: duration of the specific recording (in seconds)
File: ALLNightCountsByStatusforGroups.csv
Description: Data organized for the analysis of calling behavior at the group level
Variables
- NightLightorDarkCategory: Details the night of data collection (see manuscript for specifications), whether the site was light or dark, and the category of nocturnal flight call
- Count: Number of nocturnal flight calls for that night, site type, year, and category combination
- Night: Night of the recording season for that year
- Year: Year in which the recording was made
- LightorDark: Light status at the site
- LightorDarkNight: Light status and the night which the recording was made
- Duration: Duration of recordings for that specific night and site type (in hours)
File: CombinedCallsbyFamily.csv
Description: Number of calls by a specific family on a specific night and light status
Variables
- NightLightorDarkCategory: Details the night of data collection (see manuscript for specifications), whether the site was light or dark, and the category of nocturnal flight call
- Count: Number of nocturnal flight calls for that night, site type, year, and category combination
- Duration: Duration of recordings for that specific night and site type (in hours)
- CPH: Calls per hour for that night, site type, and gamily
- Night: Night in which the recording was made
- Status: Lighting status of the site
- Family: Family identified by Nighthawk
- Category: Site light status and family
- Date: Date in which the recording was made
File: ByFamilyByStatusByYear.csv
Description: Number of flight calls from a specific family on a specific night and lighting status
Variables
- NightLightorDarkCategory: Details the night of data collection (see manuscript for specifications), whether the site was light or dark, and the category of nocturnal flight call
- Count: Number of nocturnal flight calls for that night, site type, year, and category combination
- Night: night in which the recording was made
- Year: year in which the recording was made
- LightorDark: Light status of the site
- LightorDarkNight: Light status of the site and night of the recording
- Duration: Duration of the recordings for that night and light status type (in hours)
File: ShieldingData.xlsx
Description: Information for shielding status of lights for all sites in the dataset
Variables
- Site: Site to which the data pertains
- Shielding: Whether the site is considered shielded or unshielded
- Number Unshielded: Number of unshielded lights
- Total Lights: Total number of lights
- Proportion Shielded: Proportion of lights that are shielded at the site
File: Nighthawk_Testing.xlsx
Description: Dataset for testing the performance of Nighthawk on our nocturnal flight call recordings
Variables
- filename: unique filename associated with a specific recording
- Duration: duration of the recording (in seconds)
- StartTime: time (in seconds) from the beginning of the recording representing the beginning of the counting window
- EndTime: time (in seconds) from the beginning of the recording representing the end of the counting window
- Quarter: which portion of the recording was screened
- NighthawkCalls: number of calls detected by Nighthawk
- ManualCalls: number of calls detected by manual screening
File: CovariateDatasetbyDecile2021.csv / CovariateDatasetbyDecile2022.csv / CovariateDatasetbyDecile2023.csv
Description: Data from 2021, 2022, and 2023 needed to recreate analyses
Variables
- SiteNight: Identifier for the specific site and night
- SiteNightDecile: Identifier for the specific site and night and decile
- DecileStart: Time when the decile started
- DecileEnd: Time when the decile ended
- Site: Site identifier
- Night: Night identifier
- Decile: Decile identifier
- NightDecile: Night and decile identifier
- MoonIllumination: proportion of the moon illuminated above the horizon
- LightorDark: Site lighting status
- Post: Whether or not the site was located on WSMR main post
- DTM_km: Distance to the center of main post from the site (in km)
- CCT: Correlated color temperature for the site (in K)
- DominantWavelength: Dominant wavelength of lights at the site (in nm)
- Luminance: Illuminance at the site (in lux)
- NumberLights: Number of lights within 200m of the site
- NumberLights500: Number of lights within 500m of the site
- CloudCover: Amount of cloud cover during the specific decile (1 being no cloud cover, 5 being complete cloud cover)
- EWWind: East to west wind during the specific decile (in m/s)
- NSWind: North to south wind during the specific decile (in m/s)
- VIR: Vertically integrated reflectivity during the specific decile (in cm2/km2)
- Height: Average migrant height during the specific decile (in m above sea level)
- CallCount: Number of calls detected by Nighthawk during the specific decile
- DecileDuration: Duration of the specific decile (in hours)
- CallsperHour: Calls rate within the specific decile
- NightDuration: Total duration of the specific night (in seconds)
File: SiteandLight_2021.xlsx / SiteandLight_2022.xlsx / SiteandLight_2023.xlsx
Description: Site specific lighting variables for 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Variables
- Site: site identifier
- LOD: lighting status
- Post: Whether or not the site is on WSMR main pots
- DTM_km: Distance to the center of main post from the site (in km)
- CCT: Correlated color temperature for the site (in K)
- Domwave: Dominant wavelength of lights at the site (in nm)
- Lum: Iluminance at the site (in lux)
- NumLight: Number of lights within 200m of the site
- NumLight500: Number of lights within 500m of the site
File: CombinedSpeciesFiles2021.csv / CombinedSpeciesFiles2022.csv / CombinedSpeciesFiles2023.csv
Description: All species level identifications made by Nighthawk for 2021
Variables
- Site: Site identifier
- StartTime: Start time of recording
- CallTime: Time location of the call in the recording
- predicted_category: Nighthawk predicted category
- prob: Probability value generate by Nighthawk
- start_sec: Start time of the call in the recording in seconds from the beginning of the recording
- end_sec: End time of the call in the recording in seconds from the beginning of the recording
- filename: Filename associated with the recording
- path: Path to the original file
- AdjustedCallTime: Time location of the call in the recording
- Night: Night of the recording
- Count: Number of calls detected
File: CombinedGroupFiles2021.csv / CombinedGroupFiles2022.csv / CombinedGroupFiles2023.csv
Description: All group level identifications made by Nighthawk for 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Variables
- Site: Site identifier
- StartTime: Start time of recording
- CallTime: Time location of the call in the recording
- predicted_category: Nighthawk predicted category
- prob: Probability value generate by Nighthawk
- start_sec: Start time of the call in the recording in seconds from the beginning of the recording
- end_sec: End time of the call in the recording in seconds from the beginning of the recording
- filename: Filename associated with the recording
- path: Path to the original file
- AdjustedCallTime: Time location of the call in the recording
- Night: Night of the recording
- Count: Number of calls detected
File: SiteCoords.csv
Description: Location information for each site
Variables
- Site: Site identifier
- Lat: Latitude (in decimal degrees)
- Lon: Longitude (in decimal degrees)
Code/software
All code is written in R Markdown and is used to recreate the analyses of the related manuscript.