UF is encouraging students to use an app to make campus safer for birds.
UF’s Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation started the Bird Window Collision Project this semester to identify which windows birds are likely to crash into, said Mark Hostetler, a UF wildlife ecology and conservation professor.
Through the project, the department hopes to identify which buildings need to be made safer for birds, he said. During spring, birds fly south after winter. Many of them die around this season when they accidentally crash into windows.
On Sunday, a flock of cedar waxwings collided into the window of the Harrell Medical Education Building on Newell Drive, Hostetler said. At least 25 of them died.
The department is asking students to report dead birds found on the ground through iNaturalist, a free app, he said. Students can make reports through the app’s “University of Florida Bird Window Collision Project” section.
“Bird window strikes is a common problem throughout the U.S.,” Hostetler said. “We knew there’s buildings on campus that are problematic, but we just didn’t know which windows.”
Students need to submit pictures of the bird from three angles: the dorsal, or the backside; the ventral, or belly and the lateral, or the bird’s side. In addition, they ask for the location of the bird. Hostetler said birds are more likely to hit windows that aren’t reflective or tinted.
“They either see sky or forests and they think they can fly (through) it, so highly reflective windows are the worst,” Hostetler said.
Hostetler said he expects to know which UF buildings are most problematic by late April or early May.
Gaby Placido, a UF wildlife ecology and conservation senior, said birds face many challenges while migrating.
“They have to take on predators. They suffer from a lot of pollution and deforestation of habitat,” the 23-year-old said.
Placido said she thinks the windows of Weimer Hall and the Hub could pose a threat to birds, as well as the new addition of the Reitz Union.
“We’re hoping that the bluish tint helps a little,” she said. “I haven’t yet seen any collisions there, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been any.”
