BIRD SAFE CITY

Advancing Bird Safe Design Across Policy, Planning, Education, and the TMU Campus

The Bird Safe City project is a research initiative aimed at addressing the alarming decline in bird populations due to collisions with the built environment – an increasingly critical factor in the global biodiversity crisis. The project currently comprises two core sub-projects: the Bird Safe City Studio, and the subsequent Bird Safe City Building Studio. Together, these initiatives seek to integrate bird-safe design principles into urban planning and development. As part of the early-stages of the project, this research provided recommendations to update the City of Toronto’s existing Bird-Friendly Development Guidelines, to incorporate bird-safe design practices into city policies needed to reduce the negative effects of urbanization on biodiversity. The following phase of this research looked specifically at educating building professionals on effective bird-safe solutions, by identifying critical knowledge and awareness gaps, and developing evidence-based recommendations tailored to the needs of architects, engineers, and developers. These findings supported the creation of educational resources by EDL partner FLAP Canada.

Most recently, this work has expanded with the launch of the Bird Safe TMU project, which brings bird-safe strategies to the Toronto Metropolitan University campus. This new initiative aims to make a tangible difference in the campus context and contribute to a safer environment for birds locally.

Related Projects

BIRD-SAFE CITY BUILDING

The Bird-Safe City Building project aims to address bird fatalities and injuries associated with collisions in the built environment by means of educating building professionals. The research team identified and assessed critical knowledge and awareness gaps regarding bird-safe building solutions.... Read more

BIRD-SAFE CITY

Many birds in North and South America are experiencing significant decline due to urbanization and climate change resulting in new ecological interactions, outpacing their ability to adapt (Whelan et al., 2015). The expansion of urban areas and human infrastructure has resulted in the fragmentation... Read more