Through the Looking Glass: Studying and Preventing Bird Window Collisions

On Tuesday, May 14, 2024, Brenna Marsicek, Director of Outreach for the Southwestern Wisconsin Bird Alliance, presented a program, Through the Looking Glass: Studying and Reducing Bird-Window Collisions. In this presentation, Ms. Marsicek describes the problem of bird-window collisions, which claim the lives of a billion birds a year in North America. The problem is especially severe during the annual fall migration. She tells about the work of the volunteer teams of bird lovers who fan out across municipalities like Madison, Wisconsin in the early morning to count the fallen birds who have crashed into windows of low and medium height buildings overnight. Based on the careful records of these volunteers, the City of Madison has been able to pass ordinances that require new construction to include bird-safe windows that dramatically reduce bird strikes. Learn how owners of existing buildings can make their windows bird-safe using relatively inexpensive products available for purchase.
This program was co-sponsored by the Carnegie-Schadde Memorial Public Library of Baraboo (www.csmpl.org/) and Powered Up Baraboo (www.poweredupbaraboo.org/), whose educational programs for World Migratory Bird Day 2024 helped earn the City of Baraboo the designation of a Wisconsin Bird City.