What’s a New Year’s Eve celebration without the characteristic explosions? While many people tire of this tradition because of the strain fireworks puts on their dogs, new research illuminates just how impactful these sky bombs are on wildlife, specifically birds. In fact, birds are 1,000 times more likely to be in flight on New Year's Eve — in many instances, presumably panicked by fireworks — compared to other nights, according to a new study in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. And those impacts can be felt as far away as six miles, with larger birds like geese being especially affected.
Researchers from the Netherlands used weather surveillance radar and bird count data (gathered by volunteers who literally count birds), then measured their movements compared to the sites where fireworks are launched. They found that the degree of disturbance was to some degree dependent on species, but that these effects could last for several days into the New Year.
Furthermore, this doesn't seem to be benign stress, like playing a harmless annual prank on a bunch of birds. Fireworks trigger the flight response — meaning both literal flight and the stress response known as “hyperarousal” — which uses up avian energy, forcing the birds to spend more time looking for food.
“Flying requires a lot of energy, so ideally birds should be disturbed as little as possible during the cold winter months,” study author Bart Hoekstra, an ecologist at the University of Amsterdam, said in a statement. He and his co-authors concluded, “Given the pervasive nature of this disturbance, the establishment of large fireworks-free zones or centralizing fireworks within urban centers could help to mitigate their effects on birds.”
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