The bird-friendly mural at the University of Ottawa was created by local artist Vanessa Hum and a team of 7 volunteers over 4 days in early July. The mural prevents bird collisions by reducing the transparency of the glass walkway. Ideally, the drawings should be on the outside of the window to break up reflections, however it was not feasible/safe for the volunteers to access the windows from the outside.
Safe Wings Ottawa has been documenting bird collisions at the University of Ottawa since 2014. Areas where we have recorded the highest bird collisions include the glass walkways, and buildings with large windows. Many birds die trying to fly through glass or glass-like structures that offer an unobstructed view of vegetation or a view of the open sky at the university.
In January 2021, a new Safe Wings volunteer and former uOttawa biology student, Alysha Riquier teamed up with Deborah Doherty, our student volunteer coordinator to plan a project to engage students at uOttawa in making a more bird-friendly campus, using two types of solutions: 1. Bird-friendly murals; and 2. Bird-deterrent film. Three volunteer students choose to participate in creation of the mural, as part of a TD Environmental Leaders project coordinated through the uOttawa Community Engagement Team. They split the tasks in to 2 positions: 1. Researching materials; 2. Evaluating solutions. That winter, we used the Fatal Light Awareness Program DYI Building Risk Assessment Tool to evaluate buildings around campus to help determine which ones are the most lethal to birds. Next, Alysha and Deborah considered Safe Wings collision data dating back to 2014. They then presented a list of high-risk buildings to the uOttawa’s Sustainability Coordinator, Jonathan Rausseo. Together, they decided the walkway between the University Center and Morisset would be the best location for the mural because of their assessment as well as accessibility/feasibility for the volunteers to work on the mural. Jonathan approved the project and agreed to supervise the students during the creation of the mural.
The walkway between the University Center and Jock Turcot offers a view of the open sky from the other side, often confusing birds who try to fly through.
Artist Vanessa Hum stands next to her bird-safe window mural
Vanessa Hum’s winning design for the mural
The team from the left: Deborah Doherty, Alysha Riquier, Kristina Fobes, Sara Eid, Vanessa Hum, Hao Hu, Jonathan Rausseo. Not pictured here: Anais Rouillard, Marayam Sheltami, and Amanda Dookie (who took the photo!).
The design helps to reduce the transparency of the glass corridor, and features markings with spaces no larger than 2″ x 2″ to adhere to bird-friendly guidelines. As we mentioned, ideally, the design should be created on the outside of the glass to help break up reflections. In this case, the artists were not able to work on the outside of the windows safely.
The bird-safe campus team at uOttawa will continue to monitor the walkway and work with the university to suggest other locations to make bird-friendly treatments.
The next project involving bird-deterrent film is still in the works, but may focus on the Biosciences building or atrium of the Faculty of Social Science, where there is a large living wall inside that is visible through the front glass. Jonathan has also said that he would be interested in creating more bird-friendly murals around campus. In the meantime, we are working on a report which will be published on our website this fall, which will make recommendations for changes at uOttawa to make buildings more bird-friendly. Stay tuned!
Thank you to everyone who was involved in this project!
