Philly’s Sister Cities Cafe is trying to save birds from fatally crashing into its windows

An estimated 1,500 birds died while colliding with skyscrapers and other buildings on Oct. 2, 2020, in a small section of Center City, drawing international attention and prompting local alarm that gave rise to a new organization, Bird Safe Philly.

On Monday, Bird Safe Philly commemorated that day three years ago by unveiling a bird-safe, dotted window treatment at the Sister Cities Cafe on Logan Square — a symbol of the group’s success in bringing awareness to the issue of local bird strikes and successfully lobbying building owners to reduce lights at night.

Numerous birds have crashed into the cafe’s panoramic windows that oversee the city’s Sister Cities Park. Now light gray dots, spaced two inches apart on the glass, should reduce collisions dramatically, Bird Safe Philly officials say. In fact, as workers were finishing the installation Sept. 27, a bird flew into the last unfinished section.

Bird Safe Philly, a collaborative of five organizations, raised money to work with the business advocacy group Center City District on the new window treatment. It was made by Ontario-based Feather Friendly and installed by Philadelphia-based Street Media. At least 78 birds have flown into the building in recent years. Center City District manages the building.

“We monitor many tall buildings, and people tend to think height is the problem,” said Stephen Maciejewski, a volunteer for Bird Safe Philly who discovered the 2020 mass strike. “But most people were shocked to hear that Sister Cities Cafe, a small one-story, green building could kill and injure so many birds. But it’s not the height of this building that makes it a perfect bird trap. It’s the glass on all three sides.”

It’s estimated that 1,000 birds die each year in just a four-block area of Center City spanning 17th to 19th and Market to Arch. Thousands more are killed after striking low-slung buildings in other parts of the city. Overall, it’s estimated that as many as one billion birds fly into buildings in the United States annually.

Birds use a variety of ways to navigate at night, including cues from the earth’s magnetic field and positions of stars. Weather, such as low cloud cover, can push birds lower, meaning they no longer have stars as a guide. Artificial lights can disorient them.

Some flying from remote northern habitats might have little experience with glass. As birds reach Philly in the dark, they are attracted to the lights inside the buildings. Some of the skyscrapers have indoor atriums, which could have led birds to think they could land there. On any given morning, street trees reflect in the glass, making it appear that they are inside buildings.

Philadelphia lies in a major path for millions of birds navigating the Atlantic Flyway, an especially busy avian skyway each spring and fall.

To help, Bird Safe Philly started Lights Out Philly, part of a National Audubon Society program. Building owners or management voluntarily darken their lights from midnight to 6 a.m. twice a year: from April 1 to May 31, and Aug. 15 to Nov. 15. About 140 building owners participate.

Wyncote Audubon Society covers part of Philadelphia as a local chapter of the National Audubon Society. Leigh Altadonna, the chapter president, said the Sister Cities Cafe project was conceived to demonstrate what can be done to help reduce bird strikes The group is working with other building owners throughout the area to install strike-reducing features. The deaths on Oct. 2, 2020, were the catalyst.

He also credited The Inquirer’s story on the bird strike for galvanizing people.

“It was that event that led to a series of steps that created the foundation for Bird Safe Philly to be formed,” Altadonna said.

Stephanie Egger, who led the café project for Wyncote Audubon Society, said Bird Safe Philly raised $8,000 for the effort. Egger said workers had to be careful in installing the dots on the floor-to-ceiling glass walls, which already had an anti-graffiti film protecting them.

“Sister Cities Cafe is essentially a one-story glass cube that’s deadly for birds all around,” Egger said. “It consists of three whole only glass sides that not only reflect the trees and vegetation but also is transparent and lets the birds see directly through to the other side.”

As a result, Egger said, the building’s design basically tricks or lures birds into it.

Keith Russell, a program manager at Audubon Mid-Atlantic, called bird strikes “a growing problem.”

“We have more and more buildings built every year here in Philadelphia that are collision prone,” Russell said. “Our capacity to address this problem has really been taxed.”