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A small organization trying to make Philadelphia safe for birds just got 10 times larger.
Bird Safe Philly advocates for building owners to make their windows less likely to attract bird collisions, typically by applying decals to make the glass more visible to flying birds and turning lights off at night.
The group started in 2020 after a freakish night of Hitchcockian proportions when an estimated 1,500 birds were killed in the span of a few hours by colliding with glass. Bird Safe Philly quickly formed through a partnership with several area environmental organizations: Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Audubon Mid-Atlantic, Delaware Valley Ornithological Club, National Audubon Society, Valley Forge Audubon Society and Liberty Bird Alliance.
Since forming, the volunteer-led Bird Safe Philly has worked with eight property owners to retrofit their windows, including the high-profile Sister Cities Café on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway near Logan Circle. Most recently, it applied decals to the Andorra branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Bird Safe Philly also coordinates Lights Out Philly, part of National Audubon Society’s Lights Out program to shut off building lights overnight, and coordinates dozens of volunteers each spring and fall migration season to monitor hot spots for bird collisions at downtown buildings. They count the dead and send injured birds to the Wildlife Clinic at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education for rehabilitation.
“Birds do not see glass. They don’t recognize that it’s a solid surface,” said Leigh Altadonna, a retired public school administrator who now coordinates Bird Safe Philly. “They might be able to see right through to the other side and think they’re flying into a tree.”
A parula warbler that crashed into the glass at the Constitution Center (Emma Lee/WHYY)
Bird Safe Philly’s annual budget will increase roughly tenfold as the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has awarded the group a three-year, $496,100 grant. The award is a matching grant, meaning Bird Safe Philly can expect to work with $994,900 over the next few years.
“We have raised money annually with what we call a Birdathon each May. We have had great people donate,” Altadonna said. “We’ve raised five figures, not six or seven figures.”
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is a private philanthropy that operates in partnership with the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Bird Safe Philly grant is part of a $12.5 million package of grants awarded through the foundation’s Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund, which also includes improvements to the Cooper River Waterfront Trail in New Jersey, stormwater management around the Wissahickon Creek and planning for phase two of the South Philadelphia Wetlands Park.