FGCU Ornithology Club has partnered with the FGCU Art Galleries to install bird-safe window designs to help protect local and migrating birds. Students were recruited and formed a team determined to prevent bird strikes on campus.
Anica Sturdivant, the assistant curator at the Wasmer Art Gallery, became aware of the rising issue of bird strikes through one of the gallery assistants, Soph Shikes.
For Sturdivant, it was a shock how this could happen at the gallery and that this problem was unknown to many.
“It started last spring when one of our gallery assistants, Soph Shikes, discovered a gray catbird in front of the arts complex that had been killed because of flying into the window in front of it,” Sturdivant said.
Sturdivant was made aware that the Ornithology Club had been collecting specimens of birds killed by bird strikes, which was a more significant problem on campus. Sturdivant, Professor of Ornithology Dr. Oscar Johnson and the Ornithology Club met to discuss what was needed to prevent these bird strikes.
“We decided that we would start this bird-safe window project that hopefully will serve as a prototype to the community and university,” Sturdivant said. “It will be something that we hope the public will come and look at and spread the word so that bird-safe windows can be incorporated into every building.”
Ella Brown, a member of the ornithology club, described how the art students were involved in this project.
“We advertised a call to action to the FGCU Ornithology Club members and the students of the art department,” Brown said.
This problem was one for both the students and club members to solve, as they worked together to create a dynamic between them. This project allowed the community to solve the problem creatively.
“The call to action aimed to reach students who wished to contribute artistically, as well as many behind-the-scenes positions such as research. Once the artistic designers were found, they met and planned a general theme representing nature and birds on campus and divided up sections/birds for each artist to draw,” Edwin Wilke, the Ornithology Club president, said.
Effective materials and techniques were used to create these bird-safe windows. Exterior patterns on windows, such as dots or lines, break up the reflection that birds see in the glass, and they register those patterns as a barrier.
“Without something to break up the reflection, birds see the sky or vegetation and try to fly right through it,” Wilke said. “In our case, we have decided to go with stencils in reflective dots, using white pencils spaced two inches apart across the entirety of the front windows.”
These designs and techniques were ensured to be aesthetically pleasing and effective in preventing bird strikes.
“This effectively provides a pattern that the birds can understand as a barrier,” Wilke said. “Interspersed within the dots is where the line drawings of campus birds and vegetation will be included. These line drawings also provide something that the birds can see that breaks up the reflection of the glass, preventing bird strikes the same as the dots.”
The Ornithology club and the art galleries partnership connected students with birds and the local environment, spreading awareness of an issue they think needs action.
“This partnership has involved club members in something bigger than themselves, which is going to prevent bird strikes on this building for the foreseeable future,” Wilke said. “We hope to foster a love of our wild places in all that we do. Students from both the club and the galleries have been employing their artistic, research and project management skills towards this wonderful project.”
