Billions of migratory birds make their way to and from their wintering grounds each fall and spring. Some species fly all the way to Central and South America, while others migrate within the North American continent and call Durham their wintering home. As they make these journeys flying through cities, they are met with disorienting artificial light and the confusing reflectivity of glass, resulting in collisions with buildings.
Collisions with man-made structures are the second biggest threat to migratory birds, after cats, contributing to over 1 billion bird deaths every year in the United States alone (Kornreich et al. 2024). Located in the Atlantic flyway, Duke University’s campus has previously been identified as one of the deadliest for migrants.
How will we solve this problem?
Knowing which buildings pose the biggest threats to birds, how many are victims of these collisions, and which species is important. With previous monitoring, we have identified some hotspots on campus, but as new construction has happened since, new problem buildings are arising. With focused monitoring, we will work to identify today’s hotspots, collaborate with the Duke administration to install bird deterrents on present buildings, and continue to push for the design of all new buildings to be bird-friendly.
Check out this website to see what Duke students are doing to save the birds, and join this effort to make Duke a bird-friendly campus.
To learn more about bird collision and how you can help, visit Fatal Light Awareness Program and American Bird Conservancy
2 replies on “Problem Statement”
Hello; I noticed that you suggest folks enter bird collision reports in iNaturalist. As another option, I invite you to look at the FLAP Mapper, a site dedicated strictly to the reporting of bird collisions with windows, globally. We have seen a marked increase int he number of collisions entered since the site was launched just over one year ago. The citizen science project is designed to show the public that window collisions happen everywhere, not just in North America. Here is the link: http://74.216.225.85/FLAP/
If anyone has any questions, please give us a call or email : flap@flap.org or 416-366-3527. Thank you.
Thank you! We do know the site. However, we think i?Naturalist is easier for students because they can do it from their phone. does this site also have a phone App? Most of our volunteers are students that probably won’t take the time to upload a picture and enter information into a website, but are happy to snap and immediately upload the pictures to iNat. We look forward to further development of the tool you mention and to using it. Thanks