How a new project is keeping birds safe with art

Idaho Matters

Eryn Pierce submitted her own design for the Scrap to Sculpture Challenge. Her piece, “Birds of a Feather Fall Together,” is a delicate lattice of feathers. In her artist statement she wrote, ” This work serves as both a tribute to these birds and a call to action, encouraging us to rethink how we design and interact with our surroundings to create safer spaces for the natural world.”( Eryn Pierce)

Wild birds often fly straight into windows, not realizing there’s a pane of glass between them and the light or reflection they see inside, which can be a dangerous and often deadly problem, especially for large buildings with lots of windows.

At Boise State University for example, some buildings see 20 birds a day crash into windows and die.

So students teamed up with the Intermountain Bird Observatory to find ways to save the birds, including designing special decals to put on windows to keep the birds from trying to fly in.

Heidi Carlisle, the Education and Outreach Director at the Intermountain Bird Observatory at Boise State, and Eryn Pierce, an assistant professor of graphic design, joined Idaho Matters to talk more about how they are addressing this problem.