Join us for our next meeting on
Monday, May 13th, 2024
when Dr. Dan Klem, Jr. will enlighten us on an important topic in his presentation titled
"Saving Billions of Birds From Windows:
An Essential Conservation Issue for Birds and People"
Except for habitat destruction, a vast and growing amount of evidence supports the claim that collisions with sheet glass and plastic in residential, commercial, and educational buildings cause the deaths of more birds than any other human-associated avian mortality factor. The toll on bird populations is estimated in the billions worldwide. Conservation, ethical, and legal reasons justify preventing these unintended and unwanted fatalities that responsible human action can minimally mitigate and ideally eliminate. The speaker will provide an overview on this compelling environmental topic having implications for academic disciplines that include: among others, architecture and engineering, biology (especially conservation, ecology, and environmental science), business and economics, law, philosophy, political science, psychology, and sociology. Moreover, the current state of knowledge and the most effective means of preventing bird-window collisions will be presented. Additionally, he will summarize his and his co-author's most recent scientific publication forthcoming (March 2024) in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology: Evidence, consequences, and angle of strike of bird-window collisions. From the direct observations of 1,356 strikes, this study documents that 50% of bird-window collisions left no evidence, most frontal (84%) and glancing (86%) blows resulted in no sign of impairment, a more modest number of frontal (14%) and glancing (12%) hits resulted in birds being stunned, and few frontal (2%) and glancing (2%) hits were immediate fatalities. The interpreted results of this study upgrades the estimated annual window-kill mortality in the US alone to minimally 1.28 billion to 3.46 billion to as high as 2.56 billion to 6.92 billion; and predictably billions more worldwide.
Speaker Biography: Daniel Klem, Jr. is Sarkis Acopian Professor of Ornithology and Conservation Biology at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Among other diverse avian investigations, for 50 years (half a century) and continuing to the present, he studies, writes, and teaches about the threat that sheet glass and plastic pose to birds. No other scientist comprehensively has studied and published research results documenting and evaluating the means to prevent this human-associated avian mortality factor. He is motivated by available and growing evidence that bird-window collisions are an important wildlife conservation, building industry, legal, and animal welfare issue for birds and people worldwide. His continuing goal is to make the human-built environment safe for birds, and his latest contribution explaining and providing solutions for the window threat to birds is a new book (2021): Solid Air, Invisible Killer: Saving Billions of Birds from Windows.
Monday, May 13th, 2024
when Dr. Dan Klem, Jr. will enlighten us on an important topic in his presentation titled
"Saving Billions of Birds From Windows:
An Essential Conservation Issue for Birds and People"
Except for habitat destruction, a vast and growing amount of evidence supports the claim that collisions with sheet glass and plastic in residential, commercial, and educational buildings cause the deaths of more birds than any other human-associated avian mortality factor. The toll on bird populations is estimated in the billions worldwide. Conservation, ethical, and legal reasons justify preventing these unintended and unwanted fatalities that responsible human action can minimally mitigate and ideally eliminate. The speaker will provide an overview on this compelling environmental topic having implications for academic disciplines that include: among others, architecture and engineering, biology (especially conservation, ecology, and environmental science), business and economics, law, philosophy, political science, psychology, and sociology. Moreover, the current state of knowledge and the most effective means of preventing bird-window collisions will be presented. Additionally, he will summarize his and his co-author's most recent scientific publication forthcoming (March 2024) in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology: Evidence, consequences, and angle of strike of bird-window collisions. From the direct observations of 1,356 strikes, this study documents that 50% of bird-window collisions left no evidence, most frontal (84%) and glancing (86%) blows resulted in no sign of impairment, a more modest number of frontal (14%) and glancing (12%) hits resulted in birds being stunned, and few frontal (2%) and glancing (2%) hits were immediate fatalities. The interpreted results of this study upgrades the estimated annual window-kill mortality in the US alone to minimally 1.28 billion to 3.46 billion to as high as 2.56 billion to 6.92 billion; and predictably billions more worldwide.
Speaker Biography: Daniel Klem, Jr. is Sarkis Acopian Professor of Ornithology and Conservation Biology at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Among other diverse avian investigations, for 50 years (half a century) and continuing to the present, he studies, writes, and teaches about the threat that sheet glass and plastic pose to birds. No other scientist comprehensively has studied and published research results documenting and evaluating the means to prevent this human-associated avian mortality factor. He is motivated by available and growing evidence that bird-window collisions are an important wildlife conservation, building industry, legal, and animal welfare issue for birds and people worldwide. His continuing goal is to make the human-built environment safe for birds, and his latest contribution explaining and providing solutions for the window threat to birds is a new book (2021): Solid Air, Invisible Killer: Saving Billions of Birds from Windows.