Analyzing fatal bird-window collisions occurring on USU’s C&SS Building, Brigham City, Utah

Background/Question/Methods

In the U. S. between 365 - 988 million birds fatally collide with man-made windows annually, thus, windows are a major cause for nationwide bird conservation concerns. Our study was focused on this ecological concern. In our study, we are investigating fatal bird-window collisions occurring on the Classroom and Student Services Building (C&SS) at the Utah State University campus in Brigham City, UT. The objective of the study was to: Investigate the number of fatal bird window collisions that occur on the C&SS, then determine if our findings were larger than the expected number of fatal window collisions per month for a low-rise non-residential building (0 – 6 collisions per month). If our findings showed that the C&SS exceeded the typical number of collisions per month, we could suggest mitigation methods to campus administrators. The objective was accomplished through a two-step method. First, we analyzed data obtained through the conduction of daily surveys of the C&SS during the months of August through November of 2020. Surveyors looked for bird-window collision evidence on the building’s windows such as a bird body imprint on the window. We then collated our data with similarly obtained survey data collected in the years 2017-2019.

Results/Conclusions

We found that the monthly fatal bird-window collisions on the C&SS fell between 0 and 4 in the targeted months of years 2017 – 2020, which is not outside the expected range of 0 to 6. Despite not falling outside expected numbers, our survey data only covered a portion of each of the years. As such, starting in August 2020, a 12-month window collision survey has begun. The 12-month data will be used to obtain a clearer picture on if there are times or is a time of year that the C&SS represents a significant problem area for bird-window collisions.