Building collisions kill an estimated one billion birds annually in the US alone. This preventable welfare and conservation crisis has effective solutions that can be implemented at individual, institutional, and regulatory levels.
Window and building collisions cause acute welfare harm - injury, disorientation, pain, and death - to vast numbers of wild birds. The scale is staggering: billions of individual welfare events annually from a cause that is entirely preventable. Birds that survive initial collision often die from internal injuries, head trauma, or predation while stunned. Building owners and architects have the most direct capacity to reduce collisions through bird-safe design choices. Individual householders can implement lower-cost solutions. Regulators can require bird-safe building standards. Each collision that is prevented through design, modification, or behavior change represents a real welfare gain for an individual bird.