Sean Bradley, Staff Writer 

Philadelphia is the nation’s sixth largest city and is home to 1,533,828 people. It’s also home to 300 unique bird species. Each spring and fall, millions of birds migrate through Philadelphia following a migratory route called the Atlantic Flyway to their breeding and non-breeding grounds. Birds face many challenges during migration, including bad weather, predators, exhaustion and habitat loss. In recent decades, two threats, windows and artificial lights from buildings, have emerged and have led to millions of bird deaths annually. Sadly, several building windows on La Salle’s campus have been the sites of bird deaths.

Between Oct. 10 and 13, there were four bird deaths from window strikes on La Salle’s campus. The first incident involved a dead Swainson’s thrush that was found on the east side of the Union Building. The second and third incidents both occurred on Oct. 11, and both involved a woodpecker species called a yellow-bellied sapsucker. One was found dead behind Holroyd Hall and another one was found dead on the east side of Founder’s Hall. The fourth incident involved a dead common yellowthroat, a warbler species, that was found on the west side of the Trumark Financial Center. All of the specimen have since been collected, frozen and donated to the Ornithology collection at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.

Unfortunately, most birds don’t know what glass is. They often mistake reflections or transparent glass for passages to fly through and crash into windows. At nighttime, many migratory birds use celestial cues, like stars and the Earth’s magnetic field, to navigate. Many birds get confused and disoriented by the artificial city nighttime lights, congregate around these lights and hit windows. Sadly, millions of birds die annually from hitting windows. New evidence from a recent 2024 study suggests that window strikes for birds are even deadlier than previously thought. The study estimated that 1 billion birds die annually in the U.S. to window strikes. While this is devastating news, there are solutions to this problem.

In response to a mass collision event that occurred on Oct. 2, 2020, the Academy, Audubon Mid-Atlantic, Delaware Valley Ornithological Club, National Audubon Society, Valley Forge Audubon Society and Wyncote Audubon Society teamed up to form Bird Safe Philly, whose mission is to work with the city to carry out solutions to prevent collisions. On the Taking Action page of the group’s website, the group offers both glass and lighting solutions to prevent and reduce collisions. For glass solutions, the group recommends applying patterns on glass surfaces (making glass look opaque), installing physical barriers (such as screens, netting and hanging cords) in front of glass and installing bird-friendly glass. As for lighting solutions, the group recommends reducing the amount and intensity of lights, directing lights downward, shortening nighttime light duration and using blue and green lights.

While La Salle currently has no plans to prevent bird window collisions, there is talk of bringing the issue to the attention of facilities and eventually administration to devise a prevention plan.

Sensitive content warning: for more images of the bird collisions on campus visit this link.