Why volunteers are counting dead birds in downtown Lansing and on MSU's campus

LANSING — Barbara Saxena knelt to collect a cedar waxwing from its final, inconspicuous resting place — a sidewalk outside a downtown Lansing government building.

Her gloved hand tucked in a clear plastic baggie, she scooped the brittle, belly-up bird, silhouetted against a backdrop of pillowy white clouds floating in a blue morning sky.

Well, sort of.

The clouds and sky behind Saxena were just a reflection. The wall of windows on Constitution Hall mirrored the late-August dawn, creating the sort of alluring image that could turn fatal for a bird touching down for a morning rest.

Saxena is part of a Michigan Audubon Society crew of volunteers who monitor downtown Lansing and Michigan State University's campus for birds that have collided with windows during fall and spring migration seasons. 

A few times per week, volunteers pace around certain buildings looking for birds that have died or injured themselves in a run-in with glass. They photograph or collect the carcasses so they can be properly identified and, depending on their condition, preserved for future research.

Collisions with windows are among the leading causes of bird deaths, Michigan Audubon Society Conservation Program Coordinator Linnea Rowse said. 

"Birds are an indicator species," she said. "Think of a canary in a coal mine. They're telling us something is wrong, and in this case it’s that they're being impacted by urban hazards."

Windows reflect the outdoors, creating inviting images for birds that think they can land on branches or fly among the clouds mirrored on the glass. Potted plants visible through windows also can lure birds into a surprise collision. 

"Birds have a different type of eyesight than humans do," Rowse said. "They don’t see and perceive glass the way we do. They don’t recognize some of the cues that we do.

"For example, we see a window frame or the shape of a square window and think to ourselves, subconsciously, 'I shouldn’t walk through that.' Birds don’t perceive that."

The Audubon Society estimates between 365 and 988 million birds die from window collisions every year in the U.S. The only human activity that kills more is owning cats and allowing or abandoning them outdoors, according to a 2014 study. 

Ornithologists estimate every home kills two birds per year. Low-rise buildings — from four to 11 stories tall — are more deadly, killing 16 to 27 per year. 

Local volunteers counted 82 dead or injured birds outside of buildings in the Lansing area last fall, Rowse said. Warblers were the most common collision victims.

Warblers, Rowse's favorite family of bird, are known as "super-colliders." Research suggests their habit of calling out while they fly at night draws other warblers to them. That means if one bird is drawn to urban light pollution, more will follow, and more will be at risk for smacking into a window come dawn.

Thrushes and sparrows are also super-colliders, according to an Audubon story published in April.

Greater Lansing isn't on a busy bird migration path, so bird-window collisions are likely less common on campus than they are on Great Lakes coast lines, said Pamela Rasmussen, an MSU professor and assistant MSU museum curator.

Rasmussen leads the bird-window collision monitoring project on campus.

She said light pollution, which draws birds toward cities as they make the treacherous treks north and south, adds to the problem of reflective windows.

"Day, after day, after day, they have to somehow avoid the pull of the lights in the city," she said. "That confuses them and causes them to then fly into a reflection in a window, and that’s the end of their life. It’s not something that they’re equipped to handle, and it’s a tremendous problem."

The Michigan Audubon Society hopes the observations volunteers are making in downtown Lansing and on MSU's campus will encourage building managers to make adjustments to prevent bird collisions, like putting tape on windows or reducing nighttime light pollution, and encourage architects to design bird-friendly buildings.

It's important that birds are able to survive urban environments since they are losing their natural habitats because of development, climate change and pollution.

"We really need to find ways to co-live in our urban areas," Rowse said.

More:How humans facilitated the dramatic rise of Great Lakes gull populations

How to stop birds from flying into windows

Bird-window collisions are preventable. To stop them, the Audubon Society recommends:

• Break up reflections across the entire window. Temporary stickers or paint applied to the outside of a window can deter bird strikes. 
• Turn off indoor lighting at night. Birds that migrate at night are attracted to artificial light sources. Turning off indoor lights, closing curtains or using shields to cast light downward can help prevent collisions.
• Be careful about bird feeder placement. Feeders should either be closer than three feet or farther than 30 feet from windows.
• Report bird-window collisions. The Michigan Audubon Society is collecting information on collisions at inaturalist.org/projects/mi-bird-window-collisions. 
• Take injured birds to a rehabilitation center. Carefully pick up birds injured by a window collision, place them in a paper bag or small box and take them immediately to a rehabilitation facility. Licensed rehabilitators can be found at www2.dnr.state.mi.us/dlr/.
• Tell scientists what you see. Anyone can report bird-window collisions to inaturalist.org/projects/mi-bird-window-collisions.
• Volunteer to monitor collisions. Contact the Michigan Audubon Society at birds@michiganaudubon.org.
• Build bird-friendly. The American Bird Conservancy has a guide for bird-friendly construction. Find it at https://tinyurl.com/y5e293aq.

Contact Carol Thompson at (517) 377-1018 or ckthompson@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @thompsoncarolk.