Over the course of their time at Trinity, some students have become concerned with the sightings of dead birds around campus. This has prompted questions about the environmental health and safety of Trinity. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, cats and collisions with buildings or windows are the two leading threats to birds in urban environments. 

In an effort to address the bird deaths, Cole Robinson, sophomore environmental studies major, is undertaking a research project documenting the amount and locations of bird deaths by window strikes. He described the ongoing issue as an ecological concern, along with having negative impacts on the hygiene and aesthetics of the campus. 

“You’d go to bed, and the next morning, there would be a dead bird by Coates [Student Center], a dead bird by CSI,” Robinson said. “And it just felt like every other day, there was another one.” 

Robinson, a member of professor  of biology Troy Murphy’s avian behavioral research lab, explained that the situation is part of a much larger problem of architecture that is hostile towards wild animals. He added that San Antonio’s urban setting is disruptive to the migratory path of many bird species. According to Robinson, the abundance of large windows on Trinity’s campus makes this issue pertinent. 

“CSI, almost top to bottom, is windows,” Robinson said. “So it’s not just a problem on Trinity, but it’s definitely amplified by the fact that there are so many windows.”

Another location with a high number of dead bird sightings include Dick and Peggy Prassel Hall. Emily Fletcher, sophomore biochemistry and molecular biology major, is a Prassel Hall resident and reported that she has seen 17 deceased birds in the past six weeks of school. According to Fletcher, the third-floor rooftop surrounded by windows has been a hotspot for decaying bird corpses, due to the area being inaccessible.  

Other members of Murphy’s lab include Olive Kirshbaum, sophomore biology and environmental geoscience double-major, who is working alongside Robinson on the project. Kirshbaum shared that they had noticed the presence of dead birds since their first semester at Trinity, but that there was no formal venue for students to express their feelings or help spread awareness of the issue.

“I think a lot of people really do care about the birds on campus and really want to see things improve for them, but they just don’t know what to do because until now, there hasn’t been existing resources for what to do about it,” Kirshbaum said. 

Robinson is working with SGA Senator Nellie Clark, sophomore arts and communication double-major, to advocate for installing decals on campus windows. Kirschbaum said that the team has chosen to focus on window strikes rather than feral cats, as Cat Alliance Trinity  already has ongoing efforts to neuter and control the Trinicat population. Research has proved that window decals help to reduce incidents through breaking up glass reflections and helping birds to better recognize the presence of a window. 

On Oct. 3, Robinson and Clark met with Carlton Hendrix, interim executive director of campus operations, and Angel Ramirez, project manager of campus operations, to discuss implementing window decals. Clark said that the lengthy process will require more data collection in order to better pinpoint which building locations and window directions have the highest number of collisions. 

“If we’re going to do a window to start on the tests, it would be easier to do a Prassel window, or a residential hall window because there’s less stakeholders to try and convince,” Clark said.  

According to Clark, both facilities and each academic building’s department head must approve the proposal. The team hopes to first bring the issue to Residential Life for the experimental phase of the project, according to Robinson. 

On the occasion of seeing a deceased bird, Robinson advised against coming into contact with the body and to notify him at [email protected]. Robinson said that the Murphy’s lab collection will help support his initiative to better understand how to reduce the number of window strikes on campus.