NYC Audubon
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My work reaches far beyond the walls of my bedroom or the hallways of my high school.
Windows not treated with bird-friendly measures either reflect surrounding greenery or appear fully invisible--both of which contribute to bird collisions.
In the Big Apple, glassy and glossy buildings may look pretty, but the
migratory bird deaths
they directly cause
do not.
3 dozen dead warblers collected by 2 volunteers in 1 morning.
A stunned (but alive!) Common Yellowthroat after striking a window. Most birds that strike windows die on impact or remain motionless staring at wallls, making them vulnerable. We transport injured birds to the Wild Bird Fund, NYC's primary avian clinic.
At NYC Audubon's Project Safe Flight, a citizen science project researching migratory bird-window collisions, volunteers like myself rise before sunrise to monitor homicidal buildings around NYC.
My most powerful photos juxtapose the vitality of these magnificent migrants with the stale modern buildings they hit.
With my photography,
I reveal the heartbreaking beauty and grim extent of the seasonal massacres of migratory birds...
...but also our ability to lend them a helping hand.
You can lend birds a helping hand too!
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Make problematic windows bird-safe
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Donate to bird organizations like NYC Audubon, your state Audubon, the National Audubon Society, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Wild Bird Fund, and more
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Become a volunteer
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Dim the lights at night
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Plant native species (no, the grass on your lawn isn't native!)
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Spread awareness
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Be an advocate/activist for bird-friendly building codes
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And so much more!
Photo of a dead ovenbird on the front cover of NYC Audubon's 2023 Annual Report
To respect the window collision victims and the ethics of bird photography, I do not include Project Safe Flight photos in my usual Birds album.