This morning, a deeply unsettling occasion unfolded simply steps away from my workplace. I had been delivering Chicken Pleasant Metropolis Certificates for the Setting Minister’s signature — another step in our collective effort to guard birds from city hazards — after I grew to become an unwitting witness to the very factor I work to stop.
As I approached our workplace on Financial institution Road, a sudden commotion of high-pitched misery calls caught my consideration. I seemed up simply in time to see a chicken fall from the sky, touchdown a few metres forward of me on the sidewalk. A second larger chicken flew off. I rushed ahead to discover a younger male Rose-breasted Grosbeak, nonetheless alive however fading rapidly. Gently cradling him in my hand, I watched him take his closing breaths earlier than succumbing to his accidents.
Photograph: The Grosbeak that hit Nature Canada’s workplace window.
I couldn’t assist however marvel: Was this chicken struck down by a predator, or had it collided with one of many many glass home windows within the very constructing the place I work to advocate for his or her safety? After locking up my bike, I introduced the chicken upstairs and, on a hunch, went to examine the Financial institution Road facet of our places of work. My worst fears had been confirmed. There, on the window subsequent to a colleague’s desk, was the unmistakable imprint of the chicken’s affect. A number of feathers from the unsuspecting sufferer remained, a reminder of the devastating collision that ended with the Grosbeak’s tragic loss of life.
The irony couldn’t be starker. I had spent my morning championing chicken security, but right here, within the shadow of our personal workplace—an area the place we work to guard them—one other chicken had fallen sufferer to one of many very threats we combat in opposition to.
This incident is only one instance of an infinite and rising downside in all cities. A new examine estimates that over one billion birds succumb to bird-building collisions in North America.
Photograph: Protected Wings Ottawa Collisions in Kanata – August, 2024
Over the previous few days, I’ve observed an inflow of migratory birds in my yard in Gatineau — a transparent signal of the autumn migration. My colleague, Autumn Jordan, instructed me that Protected Wings Ottawa has been discovering giant numbers of lifeless birds round mid-size glass and metal workplace buildings in Kanata, a lot of them Rose-breasted Grosbeaks just like the one I held at present. These birds, drawn to metropolis lights throughout their nighttime migrations, discover themselves confused and disoriented in city environments. Thousands and thousands of birds in Canada die from window collisions, whereas others fall prey to predators or scavengers.
It’s a bitter irony for somebody like me, who has devoted an enormous chunk of my life to creating cities safer for birds, to witness such a tragedy firsthand — proper on the doorstep of the group that strives to stop these very deaths. This second serves as a stark reminder that we nonetheless have way more work to do.
Take Motion For Birds and Assist Us Flip Tragedy into Change
The tragic loss of life of this younger Grosbeak is a reminder of the merciless risks city environments pose to birds — however it’s additionally a name to motion. We have now the facility to scale back these risks, whether or not by implementing bird-friendly glass remedies, lowering mild air pollution, or pushing for stronger protecting insurance policies.
Help us in our mission to make cities safer for birds. Assist us flip these moments of tragic irony into lasting change.
