More than 32 birds were found dead at city hall yesterday, and another 18 injured, after collisions with a suspended glass walkway.
A group of bystanders assembled after flying birds hit the glass. Safe Wings Ottawa (SWO) was called to help with the situation.
SWO is a program run by the Ottawa Field-Nautralists’ Club. Volunteers involved work to reduce bird deaths from window collisions, through research and rescue.
According to SWO, the birds that died at city hall were all Bohemian Waxwings, a starling-sized bird native to Eurasia and North America.
In a press release sent out Sunday, SWO asked city hall to address the problems with the building. They say if city hall leads by example, other architects may look to install safety measures for birds as well.
This follows a demonstration conducted by SWO at city hall last Tuesday. Volunteers laid out the bodies of 900 dead birds on the floor inside the building, showing the consequences windows around the city can have.
The group reported 1,297 crashes in 2015 of birds flying into buildings in Ottawa.
SWO recently contacted the National Arts Centre over concerns about a new glass addition for the building. This caused the architects to reconsider the renovations, and they used ceramic fritt instead – a type of patterned screen on the new windows to reduce bird crashes.
For more information visit: http://safewings.ca/.