Event Description
Join ornithologist Dr. Daniel Klem for a talk on why windows are often fatal to birds.
Daniel Klem, Jr. is the Sarkis Acopian Professor of Ornithology and Conservation Biology at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Dr. Klem obtained his B.Sc. at Wilkes University, M.Sc. from Hofstra University, and Ph.D. at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He served in the US military during the Vietnam War and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. Among other diverse avian investigations, for 44 years and continuing to the present he studies, writes, and teaches about the threat that sheet glass and plastic pose to birds.
No other scientist has comprehensively studied and published research results documenting and preventing the lethal threat that human structures pose to birds. In his 1990 paper “Collisions between birds and windows: mortality and prevention”, he calculated that between 100 million and 1 billion birds in the U.S. alone are killed annually by flying into windows. His research has influenced the design of buildings, not least the Niagara Falls State Park Observation Tower, on which he was a consultant. He holds several US patents relating to window design to protect birds. He is motivated by available and growing evidence that bird-building collisions are an important wildlife conservation, building industry, and animal welfare issue for birds and people worldwide.
His presentation will provide an overview of this important conservation issue, addressing why the windows of our homes, commercial buildings, even iconic park visitor and bird research centers, in urban, suburban, and rural settings are so fatal to all birds in their immediate vicinity. He will offer us his unique history of studying this topic for over four decades and his current cutting-edge research. The goal has and continues to be to save more bird lives from windows. He will end by inviting colleagues and the audience to pose questions and offer comments.
The talk is free, but registation is required. Please click here to register. |
