B.I.R.D. Initiative

City skylines defined by shimmering glass towers can be beautiful, but they can also be deadly to birds lost in the sunny reflections of the glass. The same is true in cottage country, when a big bay window reflecting the forest can play tricks on birds.

According to FLAP Canada, ornithologists can now identify collisions with human-built structures to be a leading cause of death for birds in North America. Every year, approximately 25 million birds fatally collide into the windows of homes, offices, stores, cottages and buildings in Canada. During National Wildlife Week (April 7 – 13) CWF encourages you to take action during our Bird Impact Reduction Day (B.I.R.D.) initiative, a day designed to raise awareness of the problem of bird/ building collisions and to share ways we can all help reverse this threat to our winged species.

You can take your own simple steps throughout the year to help reduce bird collisions with windows. Windows can deceive birds, reflecting trees or skies or even tempting them with indoor plants seen through clean, clear glass. Whether you live in a detached home, a semi, an apartment, a condo or townhome, you can help reduce bird collisions by making all your windows more visible to birds. Installing visual cues or markers on the glass helps alert them to the presence of glass barriers.

Birds that don’t die on impact can be injured, becoming easy prey for predators. Do your part to help keep birds safe.

Nighttime

• Some 250 North American bird species are known to migrate at night
• The bright light of tall buildings can disorient birds and attract them toward our built environments.
• Once in a brightly lit area, birds hesitate to fly back into the darkness.
• Birds tend to flutter within the lit areas until they drop from exhaustion. Some collide outright with the lit buildings. Some collide with each other.
• Nighttime collisions can occur at any height of a lighted structure
• Nighttime strikes can be higher where urban centres skirt large bodies of water.
• Light escaping interior office spaces or floodlighting building exterior surfaces both attract birds.
• Spots lights projected up into the night sky can also attract birds.

Daytime

• Daytime collisions far outnumber nighttime collisions.
• Bird collisions with windows during the day is a leading cause of bird death across Canada, second only to cat attacks.
• Homes account for over 90% of these deaths.
• Observations by FLAP Canada bird rescue volunteers conclude that the vast majority of daytime collisions at commercial structure tend to occur up to 16 metres above grade.