Monthly Archives: April 2010

This morning Arthur and I are walking our Rescue & Recovery route to look for fallen injured or dead birds that have struck buildings in Chicago during the night and early morning. This is our seventh week volunteering for R&R this spring. During these weeks, I’d like to highlight migration topics by sharing a website or information about migratory birds.

Illinois Congressman Mike Quigley recently introduced HR 4797, a bill that calls for new government construction to incorporate bird-safe building practices. According to the American Bird Conservancy, the Federal Bird-Safe Buildings Act of 2010 “will absolutely save the lives of millions of birds that mistake objects reflected in window glass, such as habitat and sky, as real.”

As of today the bill is in the first legislative steps. As of March 9th it has been referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. You can easily write to your U.S. Representative in Congress via this action link to let him or her know you support the bill.

Hermit Thrush, 4-2010, PA by Kelly Colgan Azar, on Flickr

In October 2009, Toronto became the first city to mandate bird-friendly building construction. The Toronto Green Standard legislation includes Bird-Friendly Development Guidelines (BFDG), “designed to eliminate migratory bird collisions with buildings both at night and in the daytime.” I would be thrilled if the U.S. government did the same and passed HR 4797.

If you’d like to learn more about bird-safe building practices, the New York Audubon Society has a comprehensive publication entitled Bird-Safe Building Guidelines. Several case studies are included to show practical examples of the guidelines at work in the real world.

Share the birds, share the love!

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This morning Arthur and I are walking our Rescue & Recovery route to look for fallen injured or dead birds that have struck buildings in Chicago during the night and early morning. This is our sixth week volunteering for R&R this spring. During these weeks, I’d like to highlight some of the perils birds face on their migration by sharing a website or information about migratory birds.

This week I’m sharing a list of 10 Ways People Can Help Birds This Spring. Check out the list and please do what you can to help birds!

Migrants like this Yellow Warbler are on the move! Yellow Warbler by Kelly Colgan Azar, Creative Commons on Flickr

Share the birds, share the love!

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This morning Arthur and I are walking our Rescue & Recovery route to look for fallen injured or dead birds that have struck buildings in Chicago during the night and early morning. This is our fifth week volunteering for R&R this spring. During these weeks, I’d like to highlight some of the perils birds face on their migration by sharing a website or information about migratory birds.

FLAP is the Fatal Light Awareness Program, based in Toronto. Their mission: Working to safeguard migratory birds in the urban environment through education, research, rescue and rehabilitation. FLAP volunteers perform R&R in Toronto during migration. The FLAP website provides a wealth of information on preventing bird strikes in general, as well as specific data on the bird-strike situation in Toronto. For example, there is a list of the Top 30 Most Lethal Structures for Bird Collisions in the city. Similar data on the situation in Chicago is also recorded, but I don’t believe it is made public, generally. At Birding America earlier this year we did attend a seminar about the perils of migrating through Chicago, where some of this data was shared. I would like to see it publicized; perhaps some of the worst offenders would be motivated to make bird-friendly adjustments to their buildings.

To raise awareness, FLAP released a booklet last year entitled A Field Guide to Common Birds of Toronto.

The booklet, which is available electronically and can be downloaded here, shows 10 of the more common window-strike victims of the city. They are shown as they would be when found dead on the ground, with field markings and collision information for the species.

Share the birds, share the love!

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