Helen Capote and Melany Varela | Contributing Writers
Students might have noticed an increase in the number of deceased birds around campus, especially around PG6, Green Library and MANGO.
These incidents have been occurring for the past decade without resolution.
FIU’s Herpetology club aims to reduce bird collisions through advocacy by setting up a committee dedicated to this issue. Ashby Santoro, the president of the Herpetology Club, expressed their concern and the importance of advocating for the birds who fell victim.
“Because of the fall migration patterns, we’re starting to see species of birds that are more vulnerable in terms of population decline than before, a lot of birds, like about 600 million, will fly over the state of Florida within a weekend alone,” said Ashby Santoro in an interview with PantherNOW. “A lot of them will stay in Miami-Dade before continuing to the Caribbean and Mexico. Unfortunately, this is resulting in many birds beginning to die as they encounter windows and strike them.”
The Herpetology Club at FIU is raising awareness about the lack of bird-friendly infrastructure on campus, which is affecting wildlife.
As a result, they have launched the bird strike coalition with biweekly meetings to encourage the reporting of deceased birds found and to push forward initiatives to prevent bird strikes from happening.
The club has created a website to document bird strikes along with their location and species. The coalition is currently open to anyone interested in working toward decreasing bird strikes.
“The main problem that birds have is that when flying at such high velocity, they can’t tell that the window is not open air, so they will just crash into it. So incorporating things such as window decals or improving native landscaping away from areas that are heavily concentrated in buildings, could help encourage birds to stay away from buildings as well,” said Santoro.
The club sent a letter to the Student Government Association on Sep. 28 but has not received a response.
PantherNOW also reached out to SGA but has not received a response within the given deadline.
Jennifer Quintero, a master’s student in environmental science at FIU, began a project as an undergraduate student: a citizen science survey to identify where bird strikes are happening, what species are being affected, and where to focus her efforts to mitigate bird strikes due to on-campus infrastructure.
“It’s better to be proactive than to just sit and let something happen,” said Quintero in an interview with PantherNOW. “If we’re providing a habitat for birds, but they’re just going to hit our windows and die, that negates the purpose of what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to conserve biodiversity, but we’re posing a threat to it directly.”
So how can FIU lower the amount of bird incidents?
Proposals by the Herpetology Club include adding cling film to the windows where bird strikes are most often reported. Such places include the gym, areas next to the dorms and the Green Library.
Another hypothesis by Quintero regarding the cause of bird deaths is light pollution. Miami-Dade County has a lights-out campaign to reduce nighttime light pollution, a measure that Quintero also suggested FIU should adopt.
“FIU has concerns regarding safety at night time, so that’s why there’s a lot of lights on campus but putting caps on our lamps at night can direct the lights down where the light is being used, rather than up to the sky where birds can get disoriented,” Quintero said. “I’m hoping they move forward with the Student Government Association to try to promote those safety measures.”
Additionally, many birds don’t die upon impact and become victims to feral cats on campus.
“We should not be feeding wild cats and promoting feral cat colonies, it causes damage to wildlife, not just migratory birds, but native birds as well,” added Quintero.
Students who wish to contribute to the research can report any bird collision at go.fiu.edu/birdstrike.
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