AKRON, Ohio — Shane Good and the Akron Zoo are on a mission to save the North American songbird.
“Since the 1970s, our bird populations have declined by about 25%,” said Good, the zoo’s senior director of animal care. “That’s one-fourth of all the birds in North America are lost.”
Birds are an indicator species, meaning they reflect the condition of the environment around them.
“We also see insect populations declining, native plants,” he said. “It is indicative of the problems we are seeing in our community and our local eco-system.”
Hitting windows is one of the top human-related causes of bird deaths.
“We loose one billion birds per year to bird window strikes,” Good said.
There are some simple ways to help stop birds from flying into windows.
“Window treatments are a great thing,” he said. “They can be attractive they can be done in any design.
Twelve years ago, the zoo started monitoring glass on their property to determine what might be a problem area where birds were flying into windows, and in 2018, they started monitoring windows in the Akron area.
“What we did to kind of fix the issue was to put up these bird film applications,” he said. “We have eliminated a problem by nearly 100%, so it is very effective.”
Research shows that bright city lights on tall buildings or lights aimed at the sky disorient migrating birds.
“That can cause two problems,” Good said. “One: they are disoriented that they fly into the building, or two: they fly in circles and become exhausted and drop to the ground.”
He said theres an easy fix for this problem that can help save the birds.
“It might be turning out lights, lowering lights, covering windows with blinds to prevent those window strikes,” he said.
The zoo has been working with Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative in an effort to get more companies to participate in saving the birds.
“It’s a local issue so by addressing something that is happening in our own backyard,” he said. “Its something that has gained a lot of momentum.”
