By Alvanna Johnson
Have you ever looked at a freshly cleaned window and thought about how clear it looked? It’s nice to see outside without dirt or smudges obscuring your view, but that nearly invisible window may be an obstacle or even a deadly hazard to a bird.
Birds can’t tell the difference between a beautiful landscape and the reflection of it in our windows. Many birds fly into windows during migration, leaving them stunned, badly injured, or killed. More than one billion birds die annually from window collisions in the United States alone.
Birds are extraordinary animals. They contribute tremendously to the environment in many ways, whether through controlling pests, indicating environmental change, or providing economic benefits to our communities. Most birds are here in our communities year-round, but some migratory species spend only part of the year here, and they connect our environment with places as far away as Canada or Argentina.
Making a journey covering thousands of miles from breeding grounds to wintering grounds is a difficult task, even under ideal conditions. Migratory birds must dodge predators, navigate confusing light pollution, and find enough food to fuel their voyage home. For some birds, like the Kirtland’s Warbler and the American Redstart, those homes are right here in our communities.
A few years ago, in the early weeks of the fall migration, I heard a thump on the office window at the Levy Preserve. I went to investigate and found a migrating Northern Waterthrush on the ground, startled and confused. I took a photo of it and gently placed it in a box until it showed signs of recovery and eventually flew away. I’ll never know if it healed enough to continue its migration or return to its breeding grounds after the winter. For a bird able to fly across a continent, it struck me how defenseless and vulnerable it was when confronted by a window.
Unfortunately, I’ve also found several kinds of birds that did not survive a window collision: White-crowned Pigeon, Key West Quail-Dove, Bananaquit, and Black-faced Grassquit. These species are all year-round residents, so collisions are not just an issue for migratory birds. The White-crowned Pigeon is common on Eleuthera, but considered Near Threatened globally. The Key West Quail-Dove is a sought-after species by ecotourists that visit Eleuthera. We need to change our buildings so that birds can continue to thrive in our communities, for their benefit and ours.
At the Levy Preserve, we considered methods to reduce glass collisions and decided on anti-strike decals. Sourcing the decals was easy since many different products were available online. Installing the decals on the outside face of the windows took some time, but when they were all up, we were optimistic that there would be fewer casualties. Over the years since decal installation, the number of birds hitting the office windows has decreased significantly. The decals also give staff at the Preserve an opportunity to teach curious visitors about Bahamian birds and how we can care for them.
Our birds face many dangers, but windows don’t have to be one of them. It just takes a simple modification, one window at a time.
About the Author:
Alvanna Johnson is a Community Engagement Fellow with American Bird Conservancy (ABC). ABC conserves wild birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. ABC’s Conservation and Justice Fellowship program provides opportunities to examine and expand how we care for both birds and people. To read more about how you can help reduce window strikes or purchase decals, visit ABC’s glass collisions website: https://abcbirds.org/glass-collisions/.
