By Margo Wolf
If you are reading this, I might assume you care about wild things. As a member of the Save a Bird Team of the Spokane Audubon Society, I have been involved in triaging calls from the public about bird injuries and young birds (nestlings/fledglings) survival. Through this work, I have witnessed the compassion and effort from our eastern Washington community to intervene - to take action to help birds. We know that the third leading cause of bird deaths is window strikes and the numbers are staggering. The stats regarding bird mortality in the US, tell us that window strikes are responsible for reportedly 1.28 billion to 3.46 billion deaths per year.
For birds, glass windows are worse than invisible. By reflecting foliage or sky, they look like inviting places to fly into, a continuation of the landscape. Birds often collide with windows when escaping a predator, or when chasing prey.
Smithsonian researchers estimated that:
buildings 1-3 stories accounted for 44% of bird fatalities- so think residences
buildings 4-11 stories caused 56%
less than 1 % occurred in 12 + story buildings.
With increased awareness of this concern, Alan McCoy, Spokane Audubon president, spearheaded efforts to reduce window strikes. Some compilation of his research exists for your access, at Spokane Audubon's website. You can find this info under the tab conservation/threats to birds. There are detailed research findings, success stories and resources that will aid your understanding and action. SAS is working with business that might allow for some reduction / discount in price for such window strike deterrent products. If you have visited Turnbull National wildlife refuge visitor center or the Doris Morrison Learning Center/Saltese wetlands you may have seen the varied treatments.
The next efforts through Spokane Audubon involves you and/or your organization. Our two-pronged approach is to educate, encourage, and support the work of installing window treatments to your home or building. The other is monitoring and reporting window strikes. We have a link to the form for people to use to report dead birds that is on this webpage on the Spokane Audubon website. Data on reported dead birds will inform and help direct our action.
I write this as fall migration begins, which is a great time to get involved before being outside means less warmth, bugs and birds.
So please check out Spokane Audubon's website for more on this subject. Contact us for more discussion or assistance regarding window treatments and monitoring.
