Birds, Lights, and Windows
Blog vol 5.15. Birds, Lights, and Windows.
They are heading south. In the greater Burlington area, we have a couple of large portals where the migrating birds cross to go south, Long Point and Point Pelee on the North shore of Lake Erie. A busy and dangerous time. Last week, the CBC ran a story about the problem of windows and bird flight (read here).
At Burlington Eyecare we write blogs on any topics pertaining to eyes, eye health, and light. Birds are always an interest point, first from a purely aesthetic view, their gorgeous colours and flight, and second they are much affected by our use of light (our construction patterns), with bird populations down by a third since the 1970’s in North America.
Last October in Chicago, there were more than a thousand reported deaths from bird collisions with a single structure, McCormick Place, a 2.6 million-square-foot-glass building built in the 1960’s. (Read more here).
It was the perfect storm. A quick turn of the wind to the southeast gave the signal to start the southern flight from Wisconsin. Record numbers of birds crossed through Chicago and the attraction of the lights and the hazardous glass was devastating. In a previous blog we discussed the turning down of lights at night, which happy to say, has been legislated for most major centres in North America, including Toronto.
My family and I live in the country, and during the day, have had birds collide with our large glass window. What can be done? Turning down the lights at night is a great start, but, we need to make the windows more obvious to birds during the day. At our house, the offending window has since been replaced by a window of the same size with multiple panes which does seem to have taken care of the problem (we did not replace it for the birds, alas, but as part of a remodelling).
Acid etching or ceramic frit on the outer sheet of glass can help create a visible barrier. Even something as simple as installing visual markers on the outer pane can be effective. Toronto, in 2007, passed a bill that requires all new larger buildings to have bird-friendly glass installed. Netting, installed in front of the glass, is not recommended because it can still damage the bird and even capture it.
We can all do our part, by making our own windows safe for birds. Think about your windows, are they bird-safe?
The good doctor
