A study by Environment Canada reveals that human activities kill over 270 million birds every year. The human activities include owning cats which kills birds. The report was released on Tuesday October 1.

Richard Elliot informed that the 270 million birds that get killed are among the total amount of 10 billion birds present in the country. Mr Elliot is the director of wildlife research at Environment Canada. Having lots of birds in the country is in fact working well for the Canadians as they are killing a lot of them as well, he said in good humour.

Similar studies were conducted in countries like New Zealand, the United States and the U.K. This is, however, the first time such study has been conducted in Canada. Here are the top bird-killers.

Cats

Around 8.5 million domestic and 1.4-4.2 million stray of wild cats kill about 200 million birds every year in the country. The number of birds killed by stray cats is about twice the number of the number of birds killed by domestic cats. Cats can even be considered as serial killers. On the other hand, they also kill birds whenever they get hungry.

Electrocutions and other accidents

About 25 million birds are killed every year by electrocutions, power lines and other accidents. Even though wind turbines are often blamed for killing birds, it kills only about16,700 birds every year.

Collision with buildings

According to the report, about 25 million birds may get killed by colliding with buildings or houses. However, this can be prevented. If the lights get turned off in large buildings in municipal areas, birds won't be attracted to those bright lights. Reflective windows should also be covered so that it does not get attracted.

Vehicle collisions

Around 14 million birds get killed by getting collided on to things such as vehicles.

Hunting

Interestingly, about 5 million birds are killed by game hunting. According to the report, hunting is extensively executed in North America.

Other causes of bird killing include agricultural pesticides (2.7 million), agricultural mowing (2.2 million), commercial forestry (1.4 million) and communications towers (220,000).