06-19-2017 The sad loss of a young falcon

It is with a heavy heart that we report that the young male falcon (Black 64/Blue R) who had such a strong release on Friday hit a bank of windows at the WMU School of Medicine and died from the impact.  He was flying well and spending much time in the air with his brother for several days. 

Flying into glass is the most common cause of death for all birds and tragically millions of birds are killed every year because of this.  Window strikes are an indiscriminate killer since healthy birds are targeted as much as unhealthy birds.  Reflection of the sky and trees trick a bird into thinking that there is an opening, not a solid object.  Bird strikes can be prevented by using bird-friendly glass which has small dots imbedded that birds can see or by breaking up the reflection on the outside of the glass with something, such as adhesive strips.  The American Bird Conservancy has helpful information about this topic and links to products that can be used to protect birds from window strikes.  For more information, I have provided the following link to their website.  https://abcbirds.org/program/glass-collisions/

The young male (Black 63/Blue R) is flying very well and is successfully grabbing food from his parents in midair.  The young female (Black 24 / Blue Z) is still in rehab and she is flying well.  We hope she can return home soon.    

We will have news very soon about their names, so stayed tuned!