DOI: 10.5061/dryad.w6m905r26
title: Data and code from: Nocturnal flight call monitoring reveals in-flight behavioral alteration by avian migrants in response to artificial light at night

description: 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.
description: **Dryad dataset** Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.w6m905r26](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 cm^2/km^2) *
 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.