A bird conservation group in Kitchener, Ont. is trying to find solutions after picking up hundreds of dead birds. The group, Bird Friendly Kitchener, said members have found approximately 230 dead birds that have been killed after hitting glass buildings in the city. They began monitoring fatal collisions in August 2025 after receiving a Bird Friendly City certification from Nature Canada in 2024. “We had some suspicions about certain locations in downtown Kitchener, created patrol routes and started monitoring,” Meredith Blunt, co-founder of Bird Friendly Kitchener, said. “We’re closing in on our full year of migration monitoring, so fall and spring. We’ve been collecting data and collecting birds killed by window collisions.” One building of particular concern is the Google location in the Breithaupt Block. The structure features many panes of glass that reflect the sky and nearby trees. Those reflections can trick migratory birds who are looking for food or a safe place to rest. Blunt said Bird Friendly Kitchener has collected around 40 to 50 dead birds outside the Google building since August. “We found birds on every side of the campus,” she said. Blunt said the group tried to arrange a meeting with Google to talk about their concerns, but no one showed up. “We’re really not trying to vilify anyone. I honestly believe that some of this is just not knowing and a lack of education. That is what Bird Friendly Kitchener is here to do. We know about these things. We want to share our knowledge. We’re connected with organizations and companies that can help bird-proof and bird-safe buildings and provide advice. We’re open to conversations that any corporations or organizations, businesses and individuals want to have.” What has been done so far? Some places are already heeding the advice of the ornithologists. Bird Friendly Kitchener has worked with the University of Waterloo and the City of Kitchener. The city in the process of replacing old windows and installing panes with bird friendly dotting at city hall, the new Southwest Library, Kitchener Public Library Central branch and at the new Cowan Recreation Centre. The university is putting stickers on some of its windows at the Quantum Nano Centre (QNC) after a successful pilot on a campus bridge. “We already saw many collisions at QNC even before we started monitoring,” Amanda Armstrong, bird team lead for the Society of Ecological Restoration University of Waterloo chapter, said. “They’re still installing it as we speak, so we can’t really say definitively what it’s looking like right now. But for the [Student Life Centre] bridge, we have seen a 79 per cent decrease in bird collisions.” Millions of bird deaths per year Across Canada, window collisions kill somewhere between 16 to 42 million birds every year. Commercial buildings aren’t the only problem – the average detached home may be involved in approximately 11 collisions per year. “Individual buildings are some of the leading causes of it. It may not sound like a lot, but 11 birds taken a year, when you multiply that across the number of homes there are just within Canada, that number adds up really fast. That’s where you get into the billions of birds taken annually,” Christian Friis, Canadian Wildlife Service wildlife biologist, said. “It’s not necessarily the high-rise buildings. Birds aren’t colliding way up in the sky. That’s an often-cited misconception. While that does occur, it’s more often they are colliding lower down. They’re brought in by light pollution for example, or bad weather.” Friis said birds face losses through predators, invasive species, habitat loss and parasites, and window collisions are just another issue that could be avoided. “It’s a real conservation challenge because the built environment is so prevalent with glass. And the real issue is that birds just don’t perceive glass, or they see a reflection of the landscape that’s surrounding the glass, think that they can land safely and then collide,” Friis said. “Once people understand the conservation challenge that this poses, because it’s not just common birds that are being affected. We’re talking about at risk species, endangered species, populations that are really not doing well, and adding that in addition to their problems is going to make it really challenging for their recovery.” Blunt said as the city continues to grow, Bird Friendly Kitchener will keep gathering data in hopes that it can help inform the community and keep birds flying. “It’s critical data. It’s never been found in Kitchener before. This is new data for our city, especially as we grow. This is something we want to take into consideration. It’s heartbreaking. Every day there’s a sense of dread,” Blunt said. Residents that see a bird fatally collide with a window can report it to the Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP). Homeowners who want to make a change to protect birds can add a dot pattern. “The dots have become just part of the surroundings. I don’t notice them anymore,” Friis said. “There is some evidence that folks with accommodations may find it challenging, but it’s a very, very, very small percentage of the population. On the whole, it becomes part of the scenery.”
