Dr. Timothy Martin’s IB Environmental Systems and Societies class has been painting birds on windows in order to prevent birds from crashing into them, in Stamford High School throughout the school year, after an uptick in crashes.

Junior Connor Hoch spoke on his discovery of this when he said, “About a half a dozen birds within 9-square feet on the ground, we investigated a bit and saw that inside there were marks on the windows,” Hoch said, “I came to DR. Martin and asked him what we could do, he suggested we paint on the windows”

There had been an increase in bird deaths throughout this school year, according to Dr. Martin. Birds had crashed into the windows very often.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, the reason birds crash into windows is, “when they’re looking at the window, they’re seeing the reflection of sky or trees instead of a pane of glass. They think they’re following a clear flight path. That mistake can be deadly; at least half of the birds who hit windows die from their injuries or because another animal killed them while they were stunned and couldn’t escape or protect themselves.”

Hoch discovered around a half a dozen birds on the ground, he noticed that there were marks on the windows from where they had apparently hit. He went to Dr. Martin and asked what they could do to stop this problem. Martin then suggested that they paint the windows. Him and his IB class decided to paint birds on the windows. 

Cartoonish birds now decorate the windows where birds had hit most often. They’re have been very positive results from this. According to Martin. Only one bird has crashed into the window and died since they painted them. This bird crashed into a window overlooking the courtyard, where the windows have not yet been painted. 

“Hopefully we plan to paint more windows where we see birds flying into them,” Hoch said.