Canadian urban skies turn lethal for migratory birds

Warning: This story contains disturbing images of birds who died from collisions.

An unintended but fatal flaw in the design of building glass has contributed to the deaths of millions of birds in Canada and across North America, several years' worth of data compiled by advocates and reviewed by CTVNews.ca show.

Using reported bird deaths provided by  Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP) Canada , a charity that has worked to raise awareness and address the issue of deadly collisions for about 30 years, CTVNews.ca was able to graph and map these fatalities, many of which include at-risk species.

For a deeper analysis, CTVNews.ca looked at bird collisions in the Toronto area, a major conduit for migratory birds, and where thousands of collisions have been reported even in recent years.

But one important, and perhaps overlooked, issue is collisions with buildings, which kill approximately 25 million birds each year in Canada alone, FLAP says, although representatives believe the estimates could be much higher.

The problem is killing birds indiscriminately, no matter if they are resident or migratory, young or old, small or large, or male or female.

At least one estimate pegs the number of bird fatalities from window collisions at  one billion each year  across North America.

"When I first started, we didn't realize just how big the problem was to begin with," Paloma Plant, program coordinator for FLAP and a founding member, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview.

"And as time has gone on, and as our data has accumulated, we're a drop in the bucket compared to what actually happens."

Canada is home to millions of migrating birds that cross lakes and forests each spring to nest and reproduce before returning south in the fall.

Breeding location, flight speed, the distance of travel and preferred habitats  are all factors  that decide which routes birds will take. The four major migration paths for birds in North America include the Pacific, Central, Mississippi and Atlantic routes.

From the Canadian Arctic to southern Mexico, these sky-high pathways span continents and cover coastlines, mountain ranges and river valleys.

Routes will depend on each species, and while some birds travel along one flyway, others may arrive in Canada using multiple pathways.

Many of the birds Canadians may be familiar with spend a large part of their time in other countries such as the U.S. and Mexico, as well as Central and South America.

According to Nature Conservancy Canada,  more than 400 migratory  birds rely on the Canadian habitat.

While navigating these routes is instinctive to birds, how they find their way has puzzled scientists for centuries.  New research suggests  migrating birds navigate using quantum effects to chart a course between their breeding and wintering grounds.

The study shows that like sailors, migratory birds use cues from the sun and stars to guide them, and may in fact be able to "see" and use the Earth's magnetic field to determine their position and direction.

Climate change, invasive species, deforestation, agriculture, urban sprawl and  even cats  have been cited as factors  contributing to the deaths  of migratory birds in North America.

While not the only city experiencing collisions, a disproportionately high number of deaths occur in Toronto due to its proximity to Lake Ontario, located at the confluence of the Atlantic and Mississippi migratory flyways, and the fact it contains one-third of all tall buildings in Canada.

Most birds travelling through Toronto in the spring head north to the Arctic and boreal forest regions although some, even in the same species, may go to other areas such as Saskatchewan or Quebec.

Many land birds, including cuckoos, flycatchers, warblers, vireos, thrushes, orioles and sparrows, migrate at night and fly at higher altitudes to avoid predators and take advantage of the cooler temperatures.

But once the cloud cover dissipates and fog sets in, they tend to fly lower. This is when they are most prone to hit tall buildings with windows or be drawn to artificially lighted structures, almost like a moth to a flame.

The chart below shows only the total number of bird collisions reported to FLAP Canada.

However, building height is usually considered less of a risk factor than overall amounts of glass.

Most collisions occur within 50 feet of the ground around low-rise and residential buildings, where trees are reflected in glass or visible through windows, creating the illusion of a passage.

Since glass is not a natural material, birds get confused when they see the reflections of trees and skies during the day. Assuming they're real, birds try to fly through those windows. 

While usually, birds fly at high altitudes, climate conditions can push them to fly low during the night, impacting the fatality rate of these migratory birds. During the night, the artificial light reflected in the glass causes disorientation and exhaustion in birds, resulting in collisions.

Most die on impact, but even the ones that do survive are left with life-threatening injuries, have a harder time feeding, and become vulnerable to predators.

Even dark glass, or a window into a dark room, will appear as a tunnel or hole to birds. The mere fact that glass is everywhere — on railings, corners, and extending from floor-to-ceiling — has contributed to the problem.

"Even in the depths of the boreal forest, you can find human-built structures with windows," Michael Mesure, executive director and co-founder of FLAP Canada, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview.

"And I can guarantee you, the birds are colliding with those structures as well."

Over time, data collected by various experts show that some species and birds are more at risk than others when it comes to collisions. This includes 39 species classified as at risk by the Ontario and federal governments.

 A report by Birds of Toronto  says some species even breed in the city, such as peregrine falcons, chimney swifts, common nighthawks, and barn swallows.

The data show that bird collisions have fluctuated from year-to-year, with relatively fewer deaths reported recently.

However, with bird populations in severe decline over the past 50 years, fewer are expected to collide with buildings in the years ahead.

Advocates say policies on safer buildings and creating more public awareness are key to reducing the risks to migratory birds, especially in a city like Toronto where the vast majority of new mid-to high-rise buildings contain  more than 60 percent glass .

Mesure shared an example of one office complex in Scarborough, where as many as 1,500 birds on average were collected each year due to collisions.

On one particular day, he says FLAP stopped counting after more than 500 birds were found over a six-hour period.

"You would be bending down to pick up a bird that just hit a window, you're trying to record data on that bird, another bird has hit a window and falls onto your back," he said.

After hundreds of thousands of years of migrations, birds haven't been able to change their natural behaviours at the same pace that urban landscapes have. But in 2005, as a result of efforts by concerned citizens and FLAP, Toronto City Council  adopted a motion  to prevent the "needless deaths of thousands of migratory birds."

Two years later, the council  adopted the first bird-friendly  guidelines in North America, which provided strategies for making new and existing buildings safer for migratory birds.

Toronto’s 2007 bird-friendly development guidelines were the first council-adopted document of its kind in North America.

The  Toronto Green Standard  (TGS), which sets design requirements for new private and city-owned developments, now includes bird-friendly practices around  safe glass  and  lighting .

Revisions are made to TGS to ensure things are done more effectively and safety is incorporated into the design of the buildings, Kelly Snow, a policy planner at the City of Toronto told CTVNews.ca in a Zoom call.

One of the most effective ways to prevent collisions is installing visual markers, such as patterns of white dots, on windows to alert birds that something solid is there. Snow, who also works on the application of TGS for new developments, says TGS version 4, which comes out in May 2022, will include policies such as visual markers being required on the exterior surface of windows of all new developments.

While thought to be a hindrance both financially and aesthetically, neither were found to be major roadblocks over time. Some designs can actually be aesthetically appealing or even go unnoticed, Mesure says.

That same office complex he pointed to earlier installed dotted white patterns on its windows and has seen as much as a more than 70 per cent reduction in collisions, all from a "simple retrofit," he says.

"This is the easiest and most financially affordable environmental issue out there," Mesure said. Headquartered in Mississauga, Ont.,  Feather Friendly  has helped keep man-made structures safe for birds across the globe for the past 15 years.

But it's only in recent years, with growing awareness and more people staying home because of the COVID-19 pandemic, that the company has seen a spike in demand for visual markers — as much as 35 per cent a year for commercial buildings in Toronto and up to 50 per cent on the residential side.

"Our phones, emails, orders blew up," Feather Friendly vice-president Paul Groleau told CTV News.ca in a phone interview.

"I was getting calls from people saying, 'We thought we had one or two bird strikes on migration season or a year. I've had five today. I've had six today. I've had eight today.' People started to realize residences are actually the biggest killers."

Some markers are better than others and, ultimately, Mesure says the less glass there is in a building the safer it will be for birds.

With the Green Standard in place, most new constructions above four storeys in Toronto are required to be bird-friendly.

“Since 2010, there has been growing awareness of bird-friendly buildings within the profession of architecture and this is evident in some of the buildings in downtown Toronto,” John Carley, director of FLAP Canada told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview.

But a lot still needs to be done, says Carley, who was the only architect of the City of Toronto Bird-Friendly Development Working Group.

To comply with bird-friendly glass in any older building, it has to first become a part of the building code, which at the moment is not a requirement. Carley says bird-friendly glass should go into the building code so it is an integral part of the toolkit used by every architect, designer and engineer.

“The other thing is every government, federal, provincial or city building should be bird-friendly and should be retrofitted,” Carley said.

The hope now is to change the Ontario Building Code so the same bird-friendly standards are adopted across the province.

FLAP has been working with NDP MPP Chris Glover, who last year introduced a motion at Queen's Park to do just that.

They say in  a news release  that Ontario's Environmental Protection Act and Canada's Species at Risk Act make it an offence to harm or kill birds due to window collisions, but that governments haven't enforced those laws.

A rally is expected to be held at Queen's Park on April 5 to address this issue.

"So the science that's there works," Mesure said. "It's just making it mandatory."