ENDING BIRD-WINDOW COLLISIONS IN ROCHESTER
BIRD-WINDOW COLLISIONS
A CONSERVATION CRISIS
Over the past decade, 364 different bird species have been spotted in Rochester, New York, and in the surrounding Monroe County, including 165 at the University of Rochester and 140 at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).1 Some of them live here year-round, like red-tailed hawks. Others—white-throated sparrows and yellow-billed cuckoos, for example—stop by temporarily to rest and feed during their fall and spring migration along the Atlantic Flyway. These birds are not only pleasing to look at and listen to; they also play critical roles in our ecosystems. They disperse seeds. They pollinate flowers. And they control pests.
Tragically, many of these birds collide into our buildings every year, resident and migratory species alike. Most of them die. Since at least the 1980s, members of the Rochester community have had the distressing experience of finding dead birds outside their homes and in their neighborhoods, at school and at work. These include the most common victims of collisions–white-throated sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, ovenbirds, and song sparrows–as well as Swainson’s thrushes, golden-crowned kinglets, black-throated green warblers, and many more.
Bird crash into our windows because they do not recognize glass as a solid material.2 As a result, the features that make Rochester so beautiful, like its abundance of trees, often reflect off windows and trick them into thinking they are flying toward a place to land. In other cases, birds mistake raised walkways and other transparent passages for clear skies, flying into them at breakneck speeds. These errors are usually fatal, but death is rarely swift; more often, they suffer traumatic brain injuries, only to later succumb to their wounds.3
Every year approximately 2 billion birds are killed by windows across the United States.4 Most of these collisions go unnoticed. Injured birds tend to hide under trees and shrubs where scavengers, such as rats or raccoons, eventually find and feed on them.5 As a result, it is easy to forget that collisions, after habitat destruction, are one of the biggest human-related threats to birds, right up there with predation by domestic cats.
This is an urgent matter. In North America, populations of birds have already declined by almost a third since the 1970s.6 If we want to prevent their further loss, we need to end bird-window collisions now. We need to smash the crash.
TOWARDS A BIRD-SAFE ROCHESTER
The good news is that “bird-safe” window treatments are already widely available for both new and existing buildings. They are also highly effective: When window films and other collision deterrents are installed correctly, they can reduce collisions by up to 95%.7 Around the country, homeowners, offices, universities, and hospitals have voluntarily adopted such bird-safe measures while over 30 cities, counties, and states have passed legislation that requires bird-safe glass and other protective building materials.8
As of July of 2025, there are currently no such laws for Rochester, New York. This is concerning, considering that several species that appear on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2021 Birds of Conservation Concern List, such as the Canada warbler and wood thrush, have been known to frequent the city.9
Smash the Crash is a joint university-community initiative to study the prevalence of bird-window collisions in Rochester and advocate for effective and evidence-driven solutions. We aim to protect our city’s bird populations using scientific research, art/design, and educational outreach. Our ultimate goal is the adoption of local policy that will put an end to fatal window strikes.
To advocate for a bird-safe city, we first need to know how many birds our windows are killing and where. We do not yet have an official count, but we predict, based on national models of bird-window collisions, that 716 birds will die on the University of Rochester’s River Campus, on average, every year; between 204 and 2,105 at RIT; and tens of thousands throughout the region.10
Our current projects document and map bird-window collisions through 1) building monitoring programs at the University of Rochester, RIT, and downtown and 2) a citizen science reporting platform accessible to anyone in the city. We hope that the data we collect will empower residents to install collision deterrents where they are needed most and encourage our city’s leadership to make Rochester more bird-safe, ensuring access to nature for future generations.
REFERENCES
[1] eBird [2] Daniel Klem 1989 [3] Daniel Klem 1990 [4] Daniel Klem et al. 2024 [5] Hager et al. 2012 [6] Kenneth Rosenberg et al. 2019 [7] National Audubon Society 2025 [8] Yale Bird-Friendly Building Initiative 2025 [9] US Fish & Wildlife Service Birds of Conservation Concern 2021 [10] The University of Rochester owns and operates 61 buildings on its River Campus: 31 residential (1-3 stories) & 30 low-rise (4-11 stories). See University IT. RIT owns and operates 97 buildings on its campus in Henrietta. We have not yet determined the distribution of building types. See RIT Facilities Management Services. On average, every residential building will kill 2.1 birds/year, and every low-rise building, 21.7 birds/year. See Scott Loss et al. 2014. Note that this is based on national averages; the incidence of window kills might even be higher.