UK Birds Prefer to Poop of Red Cars

A study funded by UK retailer Halfords found that bird poop appears on red cars more than any other color, and it came to the conclusion that this means birds prefer to poop on red cars. 

The study looked at 1,140 cars over two consecutive days in Brighton, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and Bristol. Of the red colors seen over the two days 18% had bird poop on them, 14% of blue cars did, 11% of black cars, 7% white cars, 3% grey/silver cars and 1% of green cars. The study found now real different between seaside towns and landlocked cities in poop/color preference. 

“We do know that birds can be attracted to certain colors during display but it [droppings on cars] is probably more to do with where you park; if you park where birds roost, then you are going to get more droppings on your vehicle,” said a spokesman for the British Trust for Ornithology.

The researchers also queried drivers about how quickly they cleaned bird poop off their cars. They said that 17% clean it off immediately, 20% took a few days, 55% waited until the next car wash and 8% never washed it off. 

For the sake of scientific clarity, there are several problems with this study. The researchers made no attempt to control for owners cleaning their car and actual bird preference. Finding that 18% of red cars have bird poop on them does not necessarily mean that birds prefer the color; it could just as likely mean that red car owners are the least likely to clean their cars. Also the study makes no reference that it attempted to control for car color. It surveyed 1,140 cars, but if they did not make sure that each color are represented roughly equally, then the results are less meaningful. 

Source: Huffingtonpost and WiredPR