This collaboration was for the birds — but literally and in a positive way. Faculty, students, and staff came together to implement a solution to prevent birds from colliding with windows on campus. Over the summer, the Coastal Biology Building on UC Santa Cruz’s Coastal Science Campus was retrofitted with a transparent film that has dots in a grid pattern, making it recognizable to a bird’s eye that it is not a fly-through space. The bird-friendly dotted film was installed just in time to prevent collisions during this year’s fall migration season, which peaked this month. For birds, being able to see and avoid a window can mean the difference between life and death. Bird strikes against windows are a significant issue worldwide, causing over 1 billion bird deaths annually in the U.S. alone. Assistant Professor Ocampo-Peñuela expects that the new mitigation measures will reduce collisions at the Coastal Biology Building by 90% or more. Learn MORE.