Scientists estimate that up to one billion birds are killed by window collisions every year in North America. These deaths are preventable, but the severity of this problem is not yet widely recognized or acted upon by the public, by policymakers, by architects, or by large institutions. Launched in 2022 with the support of the Yale Planetary Solutions Project, the Yale Bird-Friendly Building Initiative aims to accelerate the adoption of bird-safe building design and materials on Yale’s campus and beyond. So far, the initiative has identified, mapped, and catalogued over 1900 bird collisions and has helped the university implement bird-safe building designs in five buildings. In 2023-2024, the initiative will expand its monitoring work, test the efficacy of Yale’s current retrofit mitigation efforts on specific buildings, and publish a data-driven action plan for how Yale can make its campus safer for birds. The initiative will also publish a first-of-its-kind report on the effectiveness of emerging city policies aimed at accelerating the adoption of bird-friendly design at greater scale.
Participants
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Viveca Morris
Research Scholar in Law and Executive Director, Law, Environment & Animals Program
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Richard Prum
William Robertson Coe Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Professor of Forestry and Environmental Studies; Head Curator of Vertebrate Zoology (Ornithology) Peabody
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Cathy Jackson
Director of Planning Administration, Office of Facilities
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Kristof Zyskowski
Collections Manager at the Yale Peabody Museum,Vertebrate Zoology, Mammalogy, Ornithology
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Amber Garrard
Director of the Office of Sustainability
