Bird is the word: Avian advocates urge awareness

By Thomas Pickell     9/10/24 11:07pm

Rice students’ lives are intertwined with avian life, from our mascot Sammy the Owl to the many birds that inhabit our thousands of trees. Recently, a group of students and faculty have raised concerns about the safety of birds at Rices and the unintended dangers campus architecture may pose.

 “It is estimated that in North America, over the last few decades, the overall bird population has crashed by 4 billion birds,” Rafael Marcondes said. “Birds often fly into windows, which often kills them. They don’t perceive the glass so they fly into the windows.”

Marcondes, an evolutionary ornithologist and biologist at Rice, is the faculty sponsor of Rice’s effort to save the birds. The group’s plan is to assemble a database to demonstrate the imminent dangers of certain architectural choices to Rice’s bird population, so they can address them.

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Marcondes explained that Rice’s location leads it to have notably high avian traffic. 

“They have just flown over the gulf, they’re starving, they need to rest and re-fuel. That’s the reason Houston is a migration hotspot,” Marcondes said. 

Bird traffic has been a chronic problem for Rice. According to the January 10, 1980 issue of the Thresher, the administration tried “tree trimming, defoliation, chimes, cannon, ultrasound, starter pistols – even helicopters and giant tree nets” over the prior decade with limited success. 

Efforts to control a high bird population and the ensuing deaths have also varied. The February 6, 1975 issue of the Thresher explains a concentrated bird tagging effort by researchers Bruce McDonald and Phillip Samuels. 

Their colleague, Keith Arnold, an ornithologist from Texas A&M University, stood on the roof of Brown College and tracked around 700,000 birds entering campus throughout the migration season. In their parallel project, McDonald and Samuels trapped birds in decoy traps next to the Rice Memorial Center in order to track and label them. 

Today, the focus has shifted from limiting the presence of birds or tracking them to finding solutions to dangers to campus birds.

“Each morning [of migration season], one volunteer walks around the building[s], carefully looking for birds. We do that because … most collisions occur overnight or in the morning,” Marcondes said. “The solution to this problem is very simple. All you have to do is apply a film to the window with dots on it, because it breaks the reflection and the birds can perceive that the glass is a solid surface.” 

In doing these surveys, they have noticed hotspots for fallen birds, including Sid Richardson College and the O’Connor Engineering and Sciences building. 

“There was one or two weeks in September where I was just [getting messages daily] like, ‘Hey, you need to go to O’Connor because there’s a dead bird,’” Kayla Yao, a Duncan College junior, said. 

The project has given its members an active role in protecting their planet, Yao said. 

“I’ve always really liked learning about birds and animals … there weren’t a lot of ornithology opportunities [at home] … a lot of it isn’t really accessible,” Yao said. “Freshman year I found out [Marcondes] had a position open. I just emailed him, and that was how we started.” 

Though the work can be tedious at times, Yao said she motivates herself through the vital nature of their work. 

“I think I push myself a bit, it’s a lot of early morning wakeups … it takes quite a while to get to [a reported bird], bring it back to the lab and process it,” Yao said. “But one thing I really [think] is important, is that if we don’t do this research, nobody will, and it’s only gonna get worse from here.”

In addition to environmental concerns, Yao also said that bird fatalities could prove dangerous to students.

“This is also a kind of public health issue,” Yao said. “Birds are carriers of disease … Nobody should be picking up dead animals.”

Marcondes stressed the importance of awareness and public participation in their database, urging everyone on campus to contribute. 

“If [readers] find a dead bird on campus, do not touch it, do not move it, let us know exactly where it is with a photo,” Marcondes said. “That helps us … the most important part [of our research] right now is the raw data,” said Marcondes. “About 75 percent [of all data] is recorded from the public.” 

“It’s a small problem that we can address on our campus … we can do something about it right now,” said Marcondes. “It’s going to have a small effect, but it’s going to be a positive effect on the conservation of our biodiversity.”

In addition to their database, the researchers are working through administrative channels to implement changes to campus facilities.

Florence Tang, the senior project manager of facilities and capital planning and liaison for the Office of Sustainability and Housing & Dining, acts as liaison between the researchers and Rice’s administration. They said they hope to persuade those in charge to heed their findings and make necessary architectural changes. 

“By utilizing bird-friendly glass and bird-friendly window films, we can help to minimize the collisions and help to conserve bird populations,” Tang said.

Along with sustainability program coordinator Kristianna Bowles, Tang is also working to incorporate bird-safe practices into student life. 

“People can make a difference by adopting bird-friendly practices in their daily lives,” Bowles said. “For example, keeping cats indoors, planting native vegetation for bird habitat and reducing light pollution during migration seasons are all impactful steps.”

Shruti Patankar contributed reporting to this article.

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