The College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment (CFWE) has partnered with Alabama Audubon, a statewide avian conservation group, to critically examine Auburn’s campus and how buildings can be safer for birds. CFWE joins Alabama Audubon's Project Safe Flight, a conservation initiative that seeks to protect local bird populations from deadly collisions with windows.
As the project expands to Auburn's campus, CFWE has begun the process of addressing high-risk locations for the wide variety of bird species that either call the Plains home or are just migrating through.
Death by window collision kills an estimated 1.28 billion birds in the United States every year, according to Alabama Audubon. Project Safe Flight aims to reduce that number through monitoring, research and prevention efforts. The initiative is especially crucial now that Alabama is entering a major spring migratory period. Alabama is the fourth most biodiverse state in the U.S. and a plethora of bird species pass through every year. Protecting a rich environment and the creatures who help make it beautiful is a core tenet of Project Safe Flight.
Since Spring 2023, Project Safe Flight has only had the resources for collision monitoring and data collection in Auburn. However, in its second year, volunteers have started to make physical changes on campus.
Windows can be dangerous for birds because they see differently than the human eye. When a bird is flying through the air, it does not see the glass of a window, only the sky and surroundings it reflects. The window is not an obstacle to them, but a corridor to keep flying through.
Project Safe Flight helps prevent fatal impacts by giving birds a warning sign: a grid of outdoor window decals that close off those false corridors. On Feb. 1, Project Safe Flight hosted a workday to install these decals on the CFWE building, a first step in making Auburn’s campus safer for birds.
A closeup of the Project Safe Flight decals on the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment building on 602 Duncan Dr. The decals help birds distinguish windows from the sky and prevents window collisions. Photo contributed by Gabrielle Dunham.
“Collisions with windows is a problem all throughout the year but it seems to be more of a problem during migration. Birds that are just passing through don’t necessarily know the environment like some of our residents. These efforts of fixing up windows are really going to benefit all of them.” said Dr. Lianne Koczur, Science and Conservation Director at Alabama Audubon.
Project Safe Flight also monitors bird-window collisions and what species are most at risk.
“Migratory species like warblers and hummingbirds [are most at risk], which is one of the top ten species we’re finding,” Koczur said. “Also, our resident birds. We do find species like cardinals and towhee as collision victims.”
The beauty of Project Safe Flight comes in part from its simplicity. Though finding funding, raising awareness and spurring volunteers into action can be tricky, the simple act of putting these decals on windows actively protects the environment from the second they go up.
“Working conservation can be really difficult because solutions to these conservation threats are often very challenging and complicated. This one is cool because you put these decals up on a window and you're saving bird lives. It's this immediate action you can take that works,” Koczur said.
Even with the immediate impact of these decals, there has been some resistance to incorporating them at other buildings on campus. One concern is the cost and who pays for the decals.
“The cost is, unfortunately, a lot for these stickers. So that’s been a lot of the issue with some of these buildings and why they don’t want to do it," said Gabrielle Dunham, CFWE alum and project leader of Project Safe Flight at Auburn. " Alabama Audubon was able to help fund for the Forestry and Wildlife building, so that has made more progress at Auburn.”
Another concern is about the aesthetics of putting decals on windows. Some would argue that the decals make windows look dirty or ugly.
Dunham compared them to a window screen, where sometimes the decals are noticeable and sometimes they are not. As for the validity of these concerns, Koczur and Dunham both shared the sentiment that having dead birds around a building is surely worse for aesthetics than some stickers.
However, Project Safe Flight doesn't plan on stopping with the CFWE building, as there have been discussions to get more buildings involved with the project. For now, the priority location is the Ralph Brown Draughon Library.
“I would be thrilled if we could get that building covered because that is one of the buildings I monitor and there have been so many birds that unfortunately hit those windows. I’m hoping we can get the library covered, but if not that, any building we can get covered is awesome,” Dunham said.
Along with putting up decals on more buildings, raising awareness, interest and volunteer action goes a long way toward supporting Project Safe Flight. Having more people involved is a key goal for Dunham for the project. The hope is that seeing the efforts Project Safe Flight has already made will inspire more people to take an active role in conservation.
“Even though you’re just one person, you can have a big impact on your community and environment. There are so many people with this project and in this state that care about wildlife," Dunham said. "I think that what people should take away from this is we may not get every building in Auburn covered, but every building we do get covered is helping hundreds and thousands of birds that come through. It’s about looking at little acts of kindness, one small positive thing can lead to so much.”
Those interested in learning more about Project Safe Flight and Alabama Audubon can go to the official Alabama Audubon website.
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Jack Fawcett is a sports production major from San Diego, California. He started with The Plainsman in January 2023.
