Bird deaths in Singapore hit record high, with man-made structures named top culprit

SINGAPORE - Two of four peregrine falcon chicks that recently won the hearts of fans in Singapore likely died after collisions with man-made structures – the top culprit of bird mortality cases recorded here.

In May, the National Parks Board (NParks) told The Straits Times that injuries to the first fledgling’s head and beak were attributed to striking a hard surface, while the second suffered internal bleeding that suggested it had died after colliding with a building.

The loss of the chicks – which were featured in an NParks live stream – reflects a grim reality being pieced together by bird scientist Tan Yen Yi. She manages the Dead Bird Hotline and its salvage operations for NUS’ Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, the only natural history museum here.

Through post-mortem investigations averaging an hour each, the assistant senior curator of birds at the museum found that among the cases reported to the hotline since 2020, collisions with artificial structures such as buildings and bus stops were the leading cause of avian mortality.

This comes as the caseload of bird injuries and deaths reported to the museum has soared, hitting a record of about 650 cases in 2025.

“We are on track to break that record this year, with the first quarter trending higher than in 2025, even though we haven’t even hit our busiest time of the year,” said Dr Tan, noting that the spike in numbers could partly be due to greater public awareness of the reporting channel.

The hotline’s carcass count typically peaks as the Northern Hemisphere enters autumn and spring, when migratory birds undertake journeys between their breeding and wintering grounds. Singapore is a key stopover along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, a route stretching from the Arctic to New Zealand that thousands of birds traverse.

Throughout the year, highly urbanised parts of Singapore often turn into unintended hazards for native and migratory birds alike, as they crash into man-made structures.

The pink-necked green pigeon ranks as the most common native bird found dead since 2020, accounting for nearly 10 per cent of the reported deaths. The blue-winged pitta is the most common migrant fatality, at about 7 per cent.

Mr How Choon Beng, NParks’ group director of wildlife management, explained that the increased use of glass in modern architecture is a reason why buildings are so deadly for birds. The glass facades reflect the sky and surrounding greenery, which creates the illusion of an uninterrupted environment. As a result, birds often fly directly into buildings.

At night, bright city lights and light that spills out from buildings disorient migratory birds that rely on natural cues like starlight for navigation.

Buildings situated on the edge of forests tend to see the highest rate of collisions, according to a study based on reports to a hotline manned by NUS’ Avian Evolution Lab between 2013 and 2020.

“NParks has been taking steps to create a more bird-friendly built environment,” said Mr How. “For instance, we have incorporated some bird-safe measures, such as decals and stickers, in our buildings.”

These measures, designed to make glass more visible to avian eyes, have already been applied at HortPark, Singapore Botanic Gardens and Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve.

Dr Yong Ding Li, head of flyways and species conservation in Asia at non-profit group BirdLife International, called on developers to use less glass and fewer reflective surfaces when building in high-risk areas.

But in the long run, Dr Yong noted, one of the key threats for migratory birds here and in the wider region arises from the loss of natural habitat due to development, which has been linked to the decline of shorebirds worldwide.

“In South-east Asia, we are not really good at protecting wetlands because these habitats are traditionally in areas that can easily be built upon, compared with mountainous terrain,” he said.

Maintaining healthy wetland habitats is also intertwined with human health. “Birds are an excellent indicator of environmental health,” Dr Yong said. “They ingest microplastics and anything else floating in the water. So if birds are dying, I would be really concerned because it could reflect some impact on human health.”

To that end, BirdLife International and the Asian Development Bank have proposed the conservation of 147 wetlands along the flyway to help Asian countries maintain migratory waterbird populations. To date, projects have been launched for five of these sites.

Back in Singapore, Dr Tan hopes to plug a knowledge gap on South-east Asian birds using the data she has mined from the growing collection of bird carcasses from Singapore and the region.

She highlighted Lars Svensson’s Identification Guide To European Passerines – dubbed the green “bible” for field researchers – that provides detailed information on determining a passerine bird’s age and sex. Such a guide is “something that’s lacking in South-east Asia, but I believe that now, with the critical mass of data we have, it will be possible”, she said.

Every report of a dead bird helps the museum track the species’ populations, Dr Tan said, citing the steady, annual stream of blue-wing pitta carcasses she receives as an indicator that the species is not disappearing entirely.

“It’s sad to see birds die, but we can really make use of them, possibly to predict changes in populations before they happen,” she said. “I hope that people can continue contributing reports because these specimens give us DNA that we can’t get from photographs.”

Those who find a dead bird can contact the Dead Bird Hotline via WhatsApp on 9876-4997. More information can be found at this website.