Photo: Barred Owl, Robin Conolly
If you missed the 19 March webinar on bird-window collisions, you may watch a recording of it here.
Collisions with windows are the third greatest cause of death for birds in the United States, after habitat loss and predation by outdoor cats. Peer-reviewed conservative research estimates that about one million birds collide with windows every day—the annual estimate is 365 to 988 million.
To learn about this threat and how to help mitigate it at your home, Reston Association and the Audubon Society of Northern Virginia invited Peter Saenger, President of Lehigh Valley Audubon Society, and Leigh Altadonna, President of the Wyncote Audubon Society, to speak on 19 March via webinar. They lead a Pennsylvania-based Bird-Window Collision Working Group that includes the Acopian Center at Muhlenberg College, Audubon Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley and Wyncote Audubon Societies. Their group has developed a “Bird-Window Collision Toolkit” which is being used by other Audubon groups.
Note that after introductions, the webinar describes how this toolkit can be used to educate others; basic information on how and why birds collide with windows then follows.
Also, this page from Pennsylvania Audubon features "how to" videos on installing solutions to prevent collisions. If you do install materials, the Bird-Window Collision Working Group would welcome your completing a survey on what you did--the survey link is also on the Pennsylvania Audubon page under “Record how you are protecting birds at your own home or place of work.”