Wild Bird Migration Welfare: The Journey and Its Hazards

Billions of birds undertake dangerous migrations annually - human-made hazards including light pollution, buildings, and wind turbines add to natural challenges.

Key Facts

An estimated 1 billion birds die annually from building and window collisions in North America alone
Light pollution disorients migrating birds, causing exhaustion and collision risk in cities
Hunting in Mediterranean countries kills an estimated 25 million migratory birds each year
Offshore wind turbines present collision risks for migrating seabirds and nocturnal migrants
Climate change is altering prey availability and weather conditions along traditional migration routes

Welfare Considerations

Migratory bird welfare is an enormous but often invisible welfare issue. Billions of birds undertake exhausting journeys across continents, facing legal and illegal hunting, building collisions, light pollution, and increasingly unpredictable weather. Individual welfare harms - collisions, exhaustion, starvation - occur at population scale. Many of the remedies are practical and achievable: window collision tape or film, reducing light pollution, and supporting hunting reform in migration corridor countries. Collective action on building design and lighting standards has the potential to prevent enormous numbers of bird deaths.

What You Can Do

Apply anti-collision window film or tape to large glass panels in your home or workplace
Turn off unnecessary lights at night during spring and autumn migration seasons
Support campaigns to reform migratory bird hunting in Mediterranean countries
Participate in window collision monitoring citizen science programmes