Did you know that bird-window collisions are amongst the top causes of bird death? At the intersection of the ornithological and the architectural, the study at UCSC, a recreation of similar data collection efforts (Hager et al., 2017), hopes to contribute to the ongoing dialogue.
Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela, Ph.D., with the advice of Gizelle Hurtado, Ph.D., and the Kenneth Norris Center for Natural History, sponsor undergraduate students across majors to contribute to this data collection.
For students interested in fieldwork, birding, ornithology, museum curation, outreach, environment, architecture/design, and art
The UCSC Bird-collisions project aims to document bird-window collisions across the campus to understand the factors driving window strikes in buildings of different sizes, glass areas, and surrounding environments. By documenting collisions spatially, we can identify the buildings with problematic features to advocate any potential adjustments, retrofits, or improvements that might be made.
The bird-window collision team also recognizes the work done by UCOP sustainability efforts, UCSC Physical Planning, Development and Operations for implementation of protocols, and the Interdisciplinary & Natural Science departments for hosting our work.
Photos provided by Sam Eberhard, intern Winter 2022