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Most artists dream of having their work displayed where thousands of people will see it. For Margaret Lepeshkin, it鈥檚 equally important that her artwork be seen by birds.
Her new work, on permanent display at the University of Massachusetts Amherst鈥檚 Studio Arts Building, is visible to human and avian viewers alike.
Lepeshkin created the winning design for the 鈥淢ake UMass Bird-Friendly Art Competition,鈥 which invited members of the campus community to submit ideas for adhesive panels to install on the atrium windows at the Studio Arts Building to prevent bird collisions.
Her design features several bird species that can be seen around campus 鈥 including a great blue heron, blue jay, cedar waxwing and peregrine falcon 鈥 set against a crosshatch pattern. Once applied to the windows, the high-contrast design will provide a visual cue to keep birds from flying into the glass.
鈥淚 wanted it to be effective in stopping collisions but also provide a glimpse of what birds can be found on campus,鈥 said Lepeshkin, an art major with a concentration in Design and Creative Technologies who enjoys birdwatching for fun.
In late April, Lepeshkin鈥檚 design began to take flight. A team of volunteers from the bet365下载ios鈥檚 Northeast Regional Office joined UMass community members to begin the process of applying giant sticker-like panels to the windows ... puzzle pieces that would come together to realize Lepeshkin鈥s design.
After a couple of hours, the volunteers had finished applying decals on the building鈥檚 seven ground-level panes of glass, a task involving painter鈥檚 tape, cleaning spray, squeegees, utility knives, many hands and a lot of patience 鈥 particularly on a windy day.
In early May, an experienced crew from the Service finished the job, with the help of a construction lift and a couple of ladders.
Envisioning a bird safe campus
Although Lepeshkin came up with the design for the panels, the vision behind the initiative originated with Monica Mestre.
Now a UMass graduate student in the Department of Environmental Conservation, in 2022 Mestre was an undergraduate intern with the bet365下载ios when she tuned into a webinar on the loss of nearly three billion breeding birds in North America since 1970.
She learned that every year, more than one billion birds collide with glass in the United States alone. Many die from the traumatic injuries they sustain.
Windows are disorienting for birds because they mirror natural elements 鈥 like trees, clouds and the sky. Birds can't distinguish between the reflection and the real world and sometimes fly directly into the glass. At night, lights left on in buildings attract birds and lead to collisions.
Mestre was impressed to hear that the Service and partners are actively working to address threats to birds, including by modifying buildings to reduce the risk of collisions. The Service led by example at its Northeast Regional Office in Hadley, Massachusetts, installing adhesive film adorned with a pattern of dots spaced two inches apart to all of the windows in its three-story building.
鈥淚t was inspiring,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 thought, this is such a great idea; I should see if anyone is doing this at UMass.鈥
To her surprise, nobody was. So, she took the initiative herself.
A fledgling initiative
In the fall of 2022, Mestre collaborated with Professor Kelly Klingler 鈥 in UMass鈥檚 Department of Environmental Conservation at the time, now at Paul Smith鈥檚 College in New York 鈥 to launch a campus-wide data collection effort to inform the fledgling Make UMass Bird-Friendly initiative.
"We wanted to see which buildings presented the greatest risk to help us prioritize where to retrofit,鈥 Mestre said.
They enlisted students in the Department of Environmental Conservation to conduct daily monitoring of 15 buildings in two sections of campus to look for signs of collisions, following a standard protocol. The students earned lab credits for participation.
After a break for summer, daily monitoring resumed in the fall. Based on observations of other high-risk buildings shared by students, faculty and staff, they added seven buildings to the monitoring list for spring 2024.
Knowing those 22 buildings represented just a fraction of the vertical infrastructure on campus 鈥 there are 198 buildings in total 鈥 the team also developed an app-based reporting tool to allow community members to submit data on bird collisions anywhere on campus.
By the end of the spring 2024 semester, they had documented 142 bird mortalities just at the 22 buildings that were being monitored through the standardized data-collection effort. The data showed that six buildings were responsible for 58% of documented collisions. The Studio Arts Building was among them. Only one other building had a higher rate of collisions.
Solutions can be beautiful
The Studio Arts Building stood out among the campus鈥檚 high-risk buildings for another reason. It represented an outreach opportunity.
鈥淲e thought it would be a good place for a pilot project to educate the community about this issue on campus, and to show through art that solutions can be beautiful,鈥 Mestre.
Margaret Vickery, a professor in the History of Art and Architecture who joined the Make UMass Bird-Friendly flock, was inspired by a bird-friendly decal design contest held at the University of British Columbia, where about 10,000 birds die every year due to window collisions.
She reached out to the chair of her department to ask if they would be open to doing something similar at UMass. 鈥淚 thought it would tie in nicely with our program, and serve as a catalyst for the larger effort,鈥 Vickery said. The department chair agreed.
In late 2024, the team launched the Make UMass Bird-Friendly Art Competition to solicit beautiful solutions to this tragic but preventable problem.
"It is exciting to see Monica鈥檚 motivation to start the Make UMass Bird-Friendly initiative become reality with this beautiful retrofit of the Studio Arts Building,鈥 said Randy Dettmers, a senior biologist with the Service鈥檚 Migratory Birds program who helped with the retrofit at UMass. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an inspiring example of how community-led efforts to address a big problem can yield real results that will prevent bird collisions for years to come."
While the Studio Arts Building is the first bird-friendly retrofit on campus, it won鈥檛 be the last. In the short term, Make UMass Bird-Friendly plans to work on window retrofits for five other high-impact buildings on campus. The long-term vision is to grow collaborative momentum to take on the rest.
The core team has already expanded to include additional students and faculty. In addition to Mestre, Klingler, and Vickery, it includes doctoral candidate Rosalyn E. Bathrick in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and in the Department of Environmental Conservation, undergraduate students Mark Titus and Feipeng Huang and Professor Nathan R. Senner.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really been a team effort,鈥 Mestre said. 鈥淲ithout bet365下载ios, the idea wouldn鈥檛 have come about.鈥
How you can help
Anyone can play a role in reducing the risks windows and buildings pose to birds. Check out our collection of Bird-Collision Reduction Toolkits for tips on how to make your home, workplace or campus safer for our feathered friends. The has helpful resources as well.
If you find a bird that鈥檚 injured, contact the nearest permitted wildlife rehabilitator. Our interactive map can help you find experts nearby.
