Bird-Window Collision Webinar

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.” 

3 Billion Birds

Photo: Songbird Decline, Chris Maynard

By Lisa Mackem

Wild bird populations in the continental US and Canada have declined by almost 30% since 1970, representing a loss of nearly 3 billion birds. This loss astounded Cornell Lab of Ornithology conservation scientist, Ken Rosenberg. Rosenberg led an international team of scientists from seven institutions in the analysis of population trends for 529 bird species. The journal Science published the study results in September. 

The scale of loss is unlike anything recorded in modern natural history. It includes hundreds of bird species across the continent. The research confirming these losses represents the most robust synthesis of long-term population monitoring data ever assembled for animals, said Adam Smith, a study coauthor and biostatistician for Environment and Climate Change Canada. “It’s safe to say that in the natural world, birds are the best studied group of wildlife species,” Smith said. “The data that exist for birds are just so incredible, from 50 years of the North American Breeding Bird Survey and the Christmas Bird Counters from 100 years ago, on to the eBirders of today,” said Smith. 

The study authors say that their work shows a pervasive loss in every North American biome. Forests have lost 1 billion birds and grasslands have lost 700 million, or 50% of their birds. The study authors identify habitat loss as a likely driving factor in these declines. More than 90% of the total bird losses (over 2.5 billion birds) come from 12 avian families, including common birds like sparrows, blackbirds, and finches. A Red-winged Blackbird was the subject of the winning 2019 Audubon photography contest photo. In the last 50 years, Red-winged Blackbirds lost 33% of their population – a severe and unsustainable loss. 

Birds are indicator species, serving as acutely sensitive barometers of environmental health. Their mass declines signal that the earth’s biological systems are in trouble. Other studies have documented similar losses in populations of insects, amphibians, and fish. A 2019 United Nations report warned that approximately one million animal and plant species face extinction – more than ever before in human history.

Fortunately, there is also good news. North American duck and geese populations have grown by 56% since 1970, largely due to US and Canadian laws protecting wetlands and collaboration with Mexico to safeguard migrating waterfowl. Conservation management became increasingly science-driven. Private philanthropy, especially by Ducks Unlimited, generated significant financial support for wetlands acquisitions. Raptor and turkey populations also have been restored. A current bipartisan measure in the US House of Representatives – the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act – would direct $1.4 billion in federal dollars to invigorate underfunded state and tribal wildlife conservation programs. Bird populations that have suffered devastating losses have enough remaining birds to spur a recovery if conservation measures are implemented soon. 

3 billion birds, co-sponsored by American Bird Conservancy, Audubon, Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, Georgetown University, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and Smithsonian National Zoological Park and Conservation Biology Institute published 7 Simple Steps to help birds: 

1. Make windows safer 

2. Keep cats indoor

3. Reduce lawn by planting native species 

4. Avoid pesticides

5 Drink bird-friendly coffee

6. Reduce use of plastics

7. Participate in birdwatching citizen science. 

Rosenberg warned that in 10 years, the current losses could be irreversible. The passenger pigeon was once the world’s most abundant bird, but people did not realize how quickly it was vanishing until it was too late. Meaningful action must start now.

You can participate in birdwatching citizen science by attending ASNV’s Project FeederWatch and Christmas Bird Count workshops this November – ASNV Workshops

Sources: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/vanishing-1-in-4-birds-gone/ https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/opinion/crisis-birds-north-america.html https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6461/120

Volunteer: Bird-safe Buildings

Photo: Free Photos via Pixabay

National Audubon has asked its members to advocate for the federal Bird-Safe Buildings Act NAS Bird Safe Windows, and ASNV wants to address the issue on a local level. If you have expertise in architecture, city planning or bird-safe building measures, the Advocacy Committee would like to hear from you. If you can help, please contact Connie Ericson.

Planting Hope: Engaging Faith-based Communities in Plants for Birds

A session on “Planting Hope: Engaging Faith-based Communities in Plants for Birds,” engaged a full room at the July National Audubon Convention in Milwaukee. ASNV’s Audubon at Home Co-Director Robin Duska described how Audubon at Home has built on pioneering work by its outreach partner, Plant NOVA Natives, to certify faith community properties as Wildlife Sanctuaries and to obtain a grant from the Coleman and Susan Burke Center for Native Plants in 2018 for six northern Virginia Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith communities, whose gardens and educational programs are now in bloom.

Also, on the program, Tom Tribble, immediate past President of the Elisha Mitchell Audubon Society in North Carolina, described EMAS’s work with a Catholic church with a large Hispanic community. John Rowden, the National Audubon Society’s Director of Community Conservation, moderated the session.