Toronto Metropolitan University’s Ecological Design Lab’s Bird-Safe City project is at the forefront of creating impactful, place-based design solutions for the wildlife in our cities, tackling the biodiversity crisis.

Bird populations across North America are declining due to urbanization and climate change, which create new ecological challenges that exceed the ability to adapt. As cities and infrastructure expand, they fragment habitats and disrupt migratory routes, increasing the risk for birds to experience building-related injuries and deaths caused by light pollution and glass structures.

This week our partner organization, the Ecological Design Lab (EDL) at Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Urban and Regional Planning, launched their latest initiative, Bird Safe TMU. This latest endeavor is part of the lab’s series of research projects and planning publications on the need for bird-safe design, enhanced policies and programs, and window retrofit solutions for metropolitan areas. 

Bird Safe TMU is a collaborative effort led by undergraduate and graduate students from Urban Planning, Environmental, and Sustainability Studies, along with faculty and staff volunteers, to monitor and reduce bird-window collisions at the university’s downtown campus. In the past, TMU students, with the support of EDL director Prof. Nina-Marie Lister, have actively patrolled the campus as part of annual spring migration monitoring, logging bird-window-collision fatalities in the Global Collision Mapper database. This process of observing and documenting bird collisions is part of their research and advocacy for building a bird safe campus and city, by contributing to bird collision data under a federal permit in collaboration with FLAP Canada.

Last week, Bird Safe TMU recorded their first bird strike of the spring migration season: an American Woodcock, found at a known collision site on campus. As part of their efforts to reduce bird collisions this migration season, Bird Safe TMU has offered to temporarily treat the windows at these collision-prone locations with washable artwork which has been shown to reduce bird strikes during migration. This initiative will begin in the coming weeks and aligns with the Lab and University’s shared commitment to sustainability, as well as efforts to make the campus safe for federally-protected migratory birds.

The discovery of the American Woodcock serves as a reminder of the urgent need to address this issue, and foster a broader movement towards human-wildlife coexistence and biodiversity recovery in shared urban areas. Their goal is to work together with the university to identify the buildings and windows most at risk, and to implement impactful strategies that address these issues in a sustainable, cost-effective manner.

Bird-Safe City Design Studios at TMU

Building on this momentum, the EDL also released their latest research studio report publication this week: Bird-Safe City Building: A Professional Training Needs Assessment. In collaboration with FLAP Canada, this project aims to address bird fatalities caused by collisions with buildings by identifying key knowledge gaps among building professionals, informing evidence-based recommendations that support bird-safe urban design. Through background research, surveys, and interactive workshops, the studio group, composed of 12 undergraduate planning students, explored opportunities in policy, design, implementation, and communication to prevent future bird-building collisions. If carried out by FLAP Canada, these recommendations will set a new standard for integrating bird-safe principles and promoting sustainable planning practices in Canada. 

The EDL is also actively involved in bird-safe issues through bird rescue awareness programs and other research. In fact, this is the second bird-safe city design studio led by Professor Lister at TMU, where in 2023, the EDL published: Bird Safe City: Bird-Safe Design Guidelines for the Biophilic City. This project, undertaken by six graduate planning students, aimed to address the decline in bird populations resulting from collisions within the built environment, which has proven to have significantly contributed to a global biodiversity crisis. In addition to the project report, the students also developed a Bird-Safe Design: Planner’s Toolkit and updated the City’s bird-safe design guidelines to align Toronto’s commitment to the Biophilic Cities Network. In doing so, the student’s research illustrates how to incorporate bird-safe design practices into urban planning policies to minimize the impact of urbanization on biodiversity loss. 

Their Bird-Safe City project is one of many at EDL at the forefront of creating impactful, place-based design solutions for the wildlife in our cities, which is essential in tackling the biodiversity crisis. Through research and design advocacy, this project and others, continues to advance tools for municipalities and related stakeholders, building cities that not only support biodiversity but also champion coexistence strategies for both wildlife and people to thrive. 

Visit the Labs Instagram @EcoDesignLabTMU or @BirdSafeTMU to get involved, and receive the latest updates on their resources and research. 

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