Avian roadkills occur regardless of bird evolutionary uniqueness across Europe.

Through an extensive literature review and using a large dataset collected from several European studies, we explored the frequency of occurrence of road bird casualties. First, we modelled the inter-specific variation in roadkill’ frequency across the avian phylogeny, testing for phylogenetic signal. Then, we explored the association between frequency of roadkill and some avian traits and evolutionary distinctiveness score of species.

The rate of roadkill did not show a phylogenetic signal, indicating that the incidence of avian casualties is independent of the phylogenetic position of species. The incidence of roadkill was unrelated to the evolutionary distinctiveness, distribution range size, type of diet, or period of activity of species, but was slightly negatively associated with the species’ body mass. This result implies that roadkill is a form of anthropogenic mortality widely generalized concerning avian phylogeny. We highlight that roadkill mitigation measures could benefit from incorporating peculiarities of local or regional avifauna.

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Morelli F. Rodríguez R.A. Benedetti Y. y Delgado J.D. Avian roadkills occur regardless of bird evolutionary uniqueness across Europe. Elsevier, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2020.102531

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Retrieved: 26 Oct 2025 02:38:05
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Resource type Text
Date of creation 2025-05-23
Date of last revision 2025-05-23
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Metadata identifier 113a7bc9-9008-5904-bb06-d1adcb9b7f75
Metadata language Spanish
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ISO 19115 topic category biota
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Name of the dataset creator Morelli, F., Rodríguez, R.A., Benedetti, Y. y Delgado, J.D.
Name of the dataset editor Elsevier
Other identifier DOI: 10.1016/j.trd.2020.102531
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