UW's Judy Bowes aims to reduce fatal bird collisions on campus

To address the problem of bird fatalities when they fly into glass surfaces like windows, a team of volunteers at the University of Washington walk the campus daily. It's part of Bird Friendly UW, a project led by College of Built Environments Ph.D. researcher Judy Bowes. The goals: Count the number of bird-building collisions on campus, provide recommendations about bird-safe design to UW architects, and educate the community about the harm that transparent and reflective glass presents to wildlife.
They find only about 10% of the more than 10,000 birds that collide with campus buildings each year, estimates based on Bird Friendly UW’s collision data from last year and formulas that predict yearly loss that have been developed by other researchers in the field. Nationally, estimates range in the hundreds of millions.