by Carole Jorgensen

flock of flying birds
Photo by Adrianna Calvo on Pexels.com

The Biden administration has withdrawn the “M” solicitor’s opinion that suggested the incidental take provision of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) was inappropriate, which will ensure that incidental take provisions will remain in the MBTA. The state of Virginia has also passed a state bird incidental take regulation, the first of its kind. Perhaps other states will follow there example.

New York has implemented a regulation to reduce bird collisions with buildings, partially in response to Project Safe Flight, NY Audubon’s volunteer citizen science monitoring project, which found that the majority of birds that strike windows die from brain hemorrhaging (Veltri & Klem 2005). Between 600 million and 1 billion birds die from window strikes each year, 90,000- to 230,000 in NYC alone.

(https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1173&context=gc_pubs)

And the Bird Safe Buildings Bill has been reintroduced in the US Congress to incorporate bird-friendly building practices in federal buildings. (https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/919?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22h.r.+919%22%5D%7D&s=1&r=1.b)