An estimated 25 million birds die in collisions with windows in Canada each year. Residential homes and low-rise buildings are responsible for the majority of such deaths, but many birds also perish on university campuses. As awareness of the threat spreads, several Canadian universities have taken measures to mitigate the damage.
In 2019, York University became one of the first campuses in Canada to apply a type of bird-safety film on the windows of key buildings. The move came after a three-year lobbying campaign led by biology professor Bridget Stutchbury and her students. Dr. Stutchbury explains that birds are vulnerable to collisions because glass does not exist in their natural environment. As a result, they may mistake the reflection of trees and vegetation in the glass for the real thing and fly to their deaths trying to reach them.
Dr. Stutchbury estimates that about 2,000 birds die in collisions with windows annually at the Keele campus in Toronto but it took physical evidence of the carnage to convince university officials of the need for change. "My grad students spent hundreds of hours collecting and cataloguing the dead birds. We went to the administration and said, Here's how many birds have died and here are their photos.'"
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