Good News: Bird Safety Retrofits Are Very Affordable At Your University or Local Building October 22, 2025 Summary: You can start your advocacy by showing the bird safety retro fits are very inexpensive. Don’t talk about bird safety in one meeting and get back later with the economic costs. Make this economic argument right upContinue reading “Commercial Bird Safety Retrofits Very Affordable”
Category Archives: bird window collisions
Is It Hunger or Lights Attracting Birds to Cities? Chicago A Case Study
In this short paper the Chicago metro area is used to test the thesis that birds are “lured by artificial lights” to land in metro and to their detriment. Chicago is on a principal flyway. It concludes that hunger is the best explains why migrant birds land in Chicago
Lights Out: A Fatally Flawed Bird Conservation Program
Using lights out to protect birds from deadly collisions is fatally flawed. If one window is shutered birds will just hit lit windows in other buildings.
“Stopover” Crisis Demands Protecting Bird Migrants at Feeding-Resting Sites, not Against Lights in Cities
The “Stopover crisis,” demands a shift in bird conservation efforts to protecting birds at feeding-resting sites and not against city lights. Addressing cat predation and window collisions in these areas is crucial, as urban light reduction is far less effective. Protecting birds at these sites is scientifically sound and can make a significant impact.
Lights Out– Sounds Simple – But Unworkable.
The article “Who Turns Out the Lights?” by Jim Cubie, J.D. discusses the challenges of implementing the Lights Out program to prevent bird deaths due to building lights. The complexity of ownership, leases, and management, as well as the involvement of multiple agencies, presents significant barriers to the program’s effectiveness. Cubie suggests bird-safe building codes as a more viable alternative to reduce avian deaths.
Experts Warn Native Plant Programs May Cause Ecological Traps
Imagine A Wildlife Refuge That Does Not Protect Its Wildlife Dr. Doug Tallamy, Dr. Daniel Klem and Jim Cubie J.D. Imagine a wildlife refuge that does not protect its wildlife. How could this be possible? It is not only possible, it is likely, unless we take immediate action to prevent it. Unfortunately, many advocates ofContinue reading “Experts Warn Native Plant Programs May Cause Ecological Traps”
How I Came to Understand Bird-Friendly Must Be Bird Safe
In my bird club and my community I have been working very hard to increase native plants in residential landscapes. I pleaded, “only if we get above 70% native vegetation, will add 2 net nestlings per nest of the birds we love to watch and feed. Plant native and keep those nestlings alive.” Forty-five perContinue reading “How I Came to Understand Bird-Friendly Must Be Bird Safe”
Fable of 10 White Kittens
I have always wanted beautiful long hair white kittens. When my adoption center announced that it had ten, I was there in a New York minute. They were so happy I would adopt 10. “Just a few questions,” they said. “Will you give them a good safe home?” “Of course, I said, but there areContinue reading “Fable of 10 White Kittens”
Turning Off Home Lights Does Not Save Birds
Turning Off Home Lights Saves Birds? NO Scientific Justification Dr. Jim Cubie Ornithology Center at Muhlenberg College The Lights Out campaign urges homeowners to save birds by turning off a few home lights. Background This it is claimed, that turning off home lights will help save the “500 million to 1 billion birds killedContinue reading “Turning Off Home Lights Does Not Save Birds”
The Fable of the 10 White Kittens
Pet adoption centers would never let you to take a pet to an unsafe home, but we let birds die hitting our windows.