Each year, the Wildlife Diversity Program offers small competitive grants to help fund research and education projects that directly contribute to wildlife diversity conservation in Iowa. These grants are made possible through the Chickadee Checkoff and Natural Resources License Plate programs. A total of $10,000 in grants is awarded each year. In 2022, one project that was funded helped educate students and save birds!
At the Roe Center on Central College’s campus, there is an entryway with large glass windows. Since birds can’t see glass, they see sky and trees reflected in the window and think this area is safe to fly through and unfortunately many birds have died by colliding with this particular window. So, with help from Wildlife Diversity Program grant funding, Central College set out to fix this problem area and educate the college community about bird window collisions. A collaboration between Biology Professor Dr. Russel Benedict and Art Professor Dr. Mathew Kelly and their students led to a collaborative art piece and beautiful solution to help save birds form running into the window. We were excited to see the new window art installed at Central College, the second of its kind on campus, this fall and glad to support these types of conservation efforts in Iowa!
Birds and windows
Up to 1 billion birds die from colliding with windows in the U.S. each year. This is the second-leading human-related cause of death to birds, after outdoor cats. Often, these collisions are caused when birds are drawn to lights or confused by outside habitat being reflected in windows. Although one person may not witness many strikes each year, multiplying those few individual instances by all the windows in the U.S. can quickly become a large number; and a significant threat to bird populations. Luckily, there are many simple solutions that can be implemented to alert birds that windows are solid and not an extension of their habitat. Adding closely spaced decals to the outside of windows, striping windows with tempera paint or soap, using UV-reflective tape, or using one-way transparent films over windows are all temporary ways to protect birds from window strikes. More permanent solutions include using etched or bird-friendly glass, windows with screens on the outside, and installing netting outside of windows. Another tip is to place bird feeders either within three yards of windows, to reduce the impact speed of a potential collision, or father than ten yards away, to reduce the overall likelihood of a collision.