Spreading Awareness by Engaging Local Community

In Canada, window collisions kill up to 42 million birds each year. Yet most of us know little about this danger, and even fewer are aware of the solutions that are available to prevent these deaths.

Although our Feather Friendly Bird Deterrent Technology makes a big mark when it comes to bird conservation, the problem still remains.

One way to shed light on this ever-growing problem is by spreading awareness at a grassroots level in a series of community outreach programs and campaigns.  

The importance of community outreach programs

Community outreach programs identify issues in the community and mobilize others to bring about change. These types of programs play a critical role in advocating for the safety of birds.

Across Canada, several bird conservation groups have created community outreach programs and campaigns, which strive to educate people on ways to keep birds safe.

One of our partners, FLAP Canada is among those groups. They offer several different community outreach programs, including their bird collision monitoring patrols, which conduct bird patrols during spring and fall migration when bird-window collisions are at their peak in the Greater Toronto Area. The trained volunteers search for birds that have hit windows and collect anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 injured or dead birds each year. FLAP also offers an advocating for bird-safe building codes annual campaign. The program calls on lawmakers to adopt bird-safe guidelines in Canada’s National Building Code and the Ontario Building Code through a series of targeted outreach, petitions, and meetings with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Members of Parliament.

In addition to these great initiatives led by FLAP, Feather Friendly has also supported several community outreach events across Canada, with one taking place in Quebec last spring.  

Feather Friendly makes its debut in Quebec

Last year a group of avian activists in Quebec handed out close to a hundred Feather Friendly DIY Kits in hopes of reducing bird collisions.

The group set up camp in Tadoussac and Les Bergeronnes to spend time informing villagers about the millions of birds that are in collisions with windows each year, a problem they believe not enough Quebecers are aware of.

They plan to head out to other Quebec cities this May with their remaining DIY Kits. They will also be handing out cat collars, which help keep birds away from prowling cats.

Feather Friendly stands behind all the tremendous work this group and other advocacy groups has done. We are so proud of all your efforts. We wouldn’t be able to do what we do if it weren’t for groups like you standing up our feathered friends in the sky.