After two years of organized and standardized data gathering, we all know CIEMAS was the number one building when it comes to bird-window collisions. In case you missed it, this building was the center of attention for the local media, being described as a “bird killer”.

The glass walkways in CIEMAS are responsible for many of the bird deaths on this building. When Duke’s administrators asked us what part of the building we would make bird friendly first, we all agreed on the glass hallways (shown below).

These glass hallways are now bird friendly!!! Yes, you heard it: bird friendly!!!!

During this summer months, Duke’s staff have been working hard applying patterned film to the most dangerous structures on CIEMAS. In the close up of the window shown on the left, you can see the dots that will cue birds to the presence of a window, helping prevent collisions.

The dots are spaced according to bird collision studies’ suggestions. Our team will continue to monitor CIEMAS to document the success of these patterned films.

We hope that other universities, institutions, and householders will follow our example in making their structures bird friendly.

We want to thank everyone at Duke University that has helped make this possible, especially folks at the Facilities and Management department and Katie-Rose Levin, Dr. Tallman Trask III, Paul Manning, Casey Collins, and John Noonan. We also thank all the volunteers that have helped collect bird carcasses.

We move forward with promoting changes in other buildings at Duke, in other campuses, and everywhere.