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Operation Window Strike

 

In the last 50 years, North American bird populations have dropped by more than 25%, with particularly steep declines in shorebirds and forest-dwelling birds. Three billion of our birds, including common species that live in our towns and cities, have vanished. Much of this loss is due to habitat degradation but, in our cities, it’s also because of direct threats like roaming cats, vehicle collisions, and window strikes.

 

Barn, cliff, and tree swallows resting after being blown off course by Hurricane Dorian. Photo by Becky Parker, 2019.

There’s a lot we still don’t understand about urban bird threats, nationally and at the smaller scale of our capital city, but there are some awesome birdy people out there doing important work to fix that. Staff and volunteers at Birds Canada have coordinated shorebird monitoring on our near-urban beaches for many years now, while educating the public on good beach practices through signage and other outreach activities. Researchers at Dalhousie University recently partnered with Hope for Wildlife to analyze trends in their rehabilitation database, exploring possible connections between bird injury/mortality, the nature of the incident that brought the bird to the rescue, and where in the city they came from. Volunteers at the Nova Scotia Bird Society are looking at the possibility of organizing citizen science walks that would target window-strikes, identifying possible strike hotspots around the city. And we at Nature Nova Scotia are mobilizing citizens to take on stewardship actions that benefit the birds near them.

We piloted Operation Window Strike in the Spring of 2022, engaging Haligonians in bird stewardship right at home. Thirty residents of our biggest city took on the threat of window-strikes by implementing one or more bird-friendly window solutions, which we delivered right to their door. And they’ve done awesome stuff with them! Here’s an example from a participant who got creative with their paint pens and another from participants who opted for the grid-like pattern created with Feather Friendly tape on their deck railing.

 

Bird-ifying their windows isn’t all these bird stewards did though. As part of Operation Window Strike, participants also provided valuable information about the configuration and size of windows in neighbourhoods around the Halifax core, in addition to how often window strikes are happening near them, and whether or not there are roaming cats in their area (which could affect the likelihood of finding a window-stunned bird). We hope that, as the project grows as engages more residents, this information may contribute to a more informed understanding of window threats in the Halifax area.

In 2022, a little over half of Operation Window Strike participants were experienced birders who felt comfortable identifying the birds around their home and confident in their assessment of their home’s current risk to birds. Nearly all participants chose to participate in the program because they had experienced at least one window strike in the last year. Almost three quarters of participants noted roaming cats in their neighbourhood, which may have affected how likely they were to discover a window-stunned bird. We distributed more kits in 2023 and 2024 and hope to answer some important questions about window strikes as our network grows. Are urban, suburban, or rural neighbourhoods more likely to experience window collisions? Does the presence of roaming cats affect the likelihood of finding a stunned bird? Do the window strike solutions all work – do volunteers report fewer strikes after putting up their chosen solution? Is volunteer reporting an accurate measure of window strike incidence? We don’t know yet! Stay tuned!

While we hope Operation Window Strike will reduce the number of birds injuring themselves against city windows, our biggest hope is that the project will foster a culture and community of stewardship among participants, and that bird-friendly actions like theirs will spread as more people learn about their efforts. Make sure you’re following us and the Bird Friendly Halifax Coalition for updates and a chance to get your own kit!

Looking for Other Ways to Help Birds?

Nature Nova Scotia is a member of the Bird Friendly Halifax Coalition, a group of bird-loving organizations and citizens working to make HRM an officially recognized Bird Friendly City. We launched our anti-window-strike kits pilot project, with the support of friends at Nature Canada, in response to an observed need to address bird threats in our urban core. Reach out to Jess at jess.lewis@naturens.ca if you’d like to get involved with Bird Friendly Halifax.

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