Students Lead Bird-Friendly Initiative at University of Michigan Campus

University of Michigan Students Take Action to Protect Migratory Birds with Innovative Solutions

In an inspiring blend of education and environmental action, first-year students at the University of Michigan are making strides in sustainability by addressing a pressing issue: bird collisions with campus buildings. By partnering with the Office of Campus Sustainability, these students are playing a crucial role in enhancing the biodiversity of their surroundings.

This fall, students in the Michigan Sustainability Community at Oxford Houses took a proactive step by installing bird-friendly window film on windows notorious for bird collisions. The initiative not only aims to protect migratory birds but also fosters a safer environment in their residence area, embodying small yet impactful actions towards a sustainable future.

The genesis of this project was the Campus as a Sustainability Lab course (ENVIRON 245), led by Joseph Trumpey, who is the director of the Michigan Sustainability Community, a professor at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design, and a faculty member in the Program in the Environment. Within this course, students tackle real sustainability issues on campus, crafting hands-on projects that result in tangible improvements.

The Oxford team prioritized bird safety, linking their academic lessons to real-world applications by collaborating with the Office of Campus Sustainability (OCS). Daisy Hall, assistant director for the Michigan Sustainability Community, highlighted the students’ enthusiasm: “The students were eager to take on something visible and immediate — something they could experience every day.” This project seamlessly integrates academic learning with daily life, enriching both the students and the campus environment.

The applied window film aids birds in recognizing glass as a barrier, thus decreasing collision rates while allowing visibility for humans inside the buildings. This initiative provided students with practical experience in applying research insights, merging design, behavior, and environmental data.

Shana Weber, associate vice president for campus sustainability, remarked, “These kinds of student-led projects are at the heart of what we mean by a living learning laboratory. They blend art, science and collaboration — and they help us translate ideas into action and then learn from them together.”

This proactive project is a component of the university’s larger Bird Protection Program, a cross-campus effort that seeks to reduce bird collisions and promote biodiversity. Bird strikes against buildings are a significant cause of bird mortality, with an estimated 1 billion birds affected across the United States each year.

The program’s approach includes research, monitoring, and prevention, combining data collection efforts with operational trials like those at Oxford Houses and the Dean Road Transportation Facility. The insights garnered from these initiatives help inform both short-term solutions and long-term guidelines for construction and renovation projects.

OCS collaborates with the Museum of Zoology each migration season to identify high-risk locations by conducting bird-collision inventories. This involves volunteers conducting daily perimeter checks around buildings to track any bird casualties, with data shared with Ben Winger, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, for further analysis.

Challenges such as reflections from the Biological Sciences Research Building, which mimic sky and vegetation, heighten the risk of bird-window strikes, emphasizing the necessity for targeted preventive measures. Anya Dale, manager of Campus as Lab in OCS, stated, “These smaller installations allow us to take meaningful action now while planning for larger-scale solutions.”

In a broader context, the Oxford team also engaged in biodiversity projects by examining the impact of lost trees on cavity-nesting birds and constructing nesting boxes from campus-sourced lumber. These boxes are currently being installed at the Campus Farm and Nichols Arboretum.

The university’s Campus as Lab philosophy bridges academic research with practical implementation, addressing sustainability challenges as they arise. This collaborative model empowers students and faculty to work alongside staff to design, assess, and implement solutions that enhance campus systems, from energy and waste to biodiversity and architectural design.

OCS plans to extend its collaboration with faculty and students, focusing on expanding monitoring efforts to other high-risk sites and piloting additional bird-safe measures, with the goal of achieving long-term updates to design standards and biodiversity objectives across the university.