Stay mindful of the birds at your windows this fall: experts

CTV News Edmonton's Marek Tkach has more on how you can keep birds from crashing into your windows as migration season gets underway.

This fall migratory season, experts are reminding people that windows can be a matter of life and death for millions of birds in the country.

WILDNorth Alberta said in Canada alone, an estimated 16 to 42 million birds die each year because they crash into windows.

A Facebook post from the rescue and rehabilitation centre said birds don’t recognize glass as a solid object, and instead perceive reflections of trees, the sky, the horizon or even themselves.

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That’s why Edmontonians are being encouraged to put up window deterrents in the fall and spring.

“It’s a very big problem during migration,” said Art Nystad in an interview Wednesday. “It’s astronomically incredible how many birds hit the buildings on a regular basis.”

Nystad has designed homes around the city for years and consistently gets questions about the installation of bird glass.

While commercial units tend to get preventative glass, he said, residential units don’t.

Jordan Dykstra, owner of Wild Birds Unlimited, said he has customers like Nystad come in to buy window deterrents multiple times a week.

“You hear a terrible thud on your window, you realize it’s something that ran into your glass and it shouldn’t be there,” Dykstra said.

He explained there are a few deterrents homeowners can use, ranging from grid pattern or solid decals or clear ones that don’t obstruct a human’s view outside.

The best, he said, are dense patterns on the glass like grids or dots.

“You need to have more than one, depending on the size of the glass, so the birds can recognize there’s something there they can’t fly through,” Dykstra said.

Why and what to do about it

While the prairies see fewer migration patterns than Ontario or the west coast, co-founder and executive director of Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP) Canada, Michael Mesure, said Edmonton is not exempt from the problem.

“The thing about this particular concern is that it’s not dealing with species like Canada geese or house sparrows or starlings,” Mesure said. “These are neotropical migrating birds that just happen to pass through our dense urban environments. They collide in significant numbers.”

Part of the goal at FLAP, he said, is to educate the public and work with both industries and government agencies.

“See if you can engage your local councillors, local government, if they aren’t doing it already, to build new buildings with birds in mind,” he said, adding that many cities across Canada are already starting to introduce guidelines to curb the problem.

As for homeowners, Mesure said looking into window deterrents for their homes and cottages is great. If you do come across a bird who has flown into your window, he noted, be aware of the Global Bird Collision Mapper, which helps experts keep track of deaths.

If a bird is alive after it hits your window, he said, it may gain composure and fly away. If not, injured birds need to be seen by a wildlife rehabilitator like WILDNorth.

“Pick that bird up, contain it in say, a cardboard box or paper bag, put it somewhere quiet, and hopefully you can make that journey to a local rehabilitation facility to hand the bird over,” he said.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Marek Tkach, Kerry McAthey