We heard a Belted Kingfisher on our morning walk the other day. We were near the Main Mall flag pole. It sounded like the bird was near the ponds behind the University Centre Building. We made our way over to see if we could spot the kingfisher. By the time we arrived it seemed like the kingfisher had gone.
What we did see we was a flicker at the side of the pond digging into the grass/concrete margin, a handful of lbb’s (little brown birds), and a seagull flying overhead. Last spring we spotted a goose nesting there. Ducks are occasionally drawn to the water. Kingfishers, though resident year round in our region, would have been an unusual campus sighting.
We looked for the kingfisher in the trees and bushes alongside the pond. Nothing there. As we started to leave we saw a grey mass on the walkway in front of the large clear glass windows. Sadly, it was the kingfisher. It was still warm to the touch; it was clearly the bird we had heard. It had become the victim of a window strike.
UBC Campus and Community Planning claim “about 10,000 birds die at UBC [each year] by colliding with clear and reflective glass.” A UBC study published in 2021 found that Varied Thrushes and Rufous-Sided Towhees had a higher than average vulnerability to mortality following a window strike.
The study monitored eight buildings “for evidence of bird–window collisions across all 4 seasons between January 22, 2015 and March 15, 2017 at the UBC, Canada. Buildings were selected for monitoring from the 229 buildings >1 story on campus. … [The authors] observed 152 collision mortalities in 225 days of collision monitoring, however when corrected for biases due to scavenging and searcher error, we estimated that 281–486 fatalities occurred at our 8 study buildings across our 5 seasonal periods of study. The highest rate of collision mortality occurred in fall, but equivalent collision mortality occurred during winter and spring, at our study site. Among species detected on point counts in winter 2017, Varied Thrush, Spotted Towhee, and American Robin showed the greatest vulnerability to collisions, whereas American Crow, Pine Siskin (Spinus pinus), Glaucous-winged Gull (Larus glaucescens), and European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) were least vulnerable.”
Campus and Community Planning has implemented bird friendly design guidelines for buildings. Unlike regulations or requirements in a land use plan, guidelines are voluntary and discretionary (though the intention is to make some aspect of bird friendly design a requirement for new builds). Some new buildings (like the eagle nest site polygon development) have incorporated elements of bird friendly design. Some work has also been done to remediate existing buildings.
One campus project focussed on window stencils to reduce bird strikes.
10,000 bird deaths a year from window strikes is a high price to pay for glass windows and patios facades. UBC intends to significantly densify campus. This will increase the amount of reflective surfaces while also reducing quality bird habitat. One avid bird watcher I spoke with expressed the hope “UBC would replace their guidelines with rules that set, not follow, the standard for mitigating bird strikes.” That remains to be seen as UBC moves toward finalizing their revised Official Land Use Plan.