dBird

Nearly a billion birds are killed each year in the U.S. from collisions with windows (Loss et al. 2014). Birds cannot perceive architectural cues that indicate the presence of a window; rather, they see the reflection of vegetation, a clear space to fly through, or are drawn towards the glass by artificial light at night. Glass being invisible to birds leads birds to collide with glass, severely injuring or killing them.

dBird is an online crowd-sourced data collection tool that provides a way for the public to report incidents of dead and injured birds, helping to contextualize and guide research and advocacy efforts that aim to reduce human-caused hazards to birds.

dBird was launched in 2014 by NYC Bird Alliance (formerly NYC Audubon) to complement data collected from Project Safe Flight volunteer collision monitoring, which has been in place since 1997. dBird and Project Safe Flight help conservationists understand the dynamics and drivers of collisions to develop policies and technologies that prevent collisions from occurring.

dBird can be used anywhere in the world, and over 55 other organizations across the U.S. are using this data to help further bird collisions research! Visit the “About” section on dbird.org to learn how you can sign up your organization to gain access to dBird data and help your organization study the causes of bird mortality.

To make dBird accessible to all of North America, in 2020, Jim and Birte Falconer funded an update and expansion to dBird as part of Birds Connect Seattle’s Bird-safe Cities program. Thanks to their generosity, bird conservation organizations across North America can now manage and download bird mortality data within their own regions.

For more information on bird collisions and to find out what you can do to help protect birds, please visit NYC Bird Alliance’s Project Safe Flight and Birds Connect Seattle’s Bird-safe Cities.