How Ottawa became certified as a 'bird friendly' city

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She said volunteers who educated people about birds were crucial in bird-friendly cities.

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“What I’m finding is that the young people are being involved,” Doherty said. “It’s encouraging to see all of that happening.”

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Doherty said Bird Friendly Ottawa formed about four years ago, primarily at the request of Nature Canada to put together a bird team. She said efforts to raise awareness about bird-window collisions had started to ramp up in 2016, when a flock of waxwings collided with a glass walkway at City Hall.

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“Since 2020, we’ve had bird-safe design guidelines, so any new buildings (that are) three stories and above need to go through a recommendation process,” Doherty said. “We’re starting to see more and more of those buildings.”

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She said some characteristics of these buildings included “bird-safe glass, dark sky lighting and bird-friendly landscaping.”

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Doherty added that a quarter-million birds become victims of window collisions in Ottawa every year.

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“They either collide and die on impact or they’re injured and die elsewhere,” she said. “That’s not just (from) the tall buildings downtown. That’s across the region.”

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A Safe Wings Ottawa display at the Museum of Nature of 1800 birds that died from window collisions. Photo by JULIE OLIVER /Postmedia

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Along with window collisions, Doherty said, amongst the largest threats to birds were plastic pollution and cats.

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“There’s over a million birds that are killed in North America by cats,” she said. “That’s one of the places where we feel education is very important.”

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“Similar to window collisions, people don’t see those deaths happen, so they don’t understand that it’s a problem.”

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Doherty said she was “very excited” to hear about Ottawa’s recent achievement.

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“It’s been a long time coming,” Doherty said. “I’m very proud of that group effort because it’s been all sorts of very diverse people working to help the birds.”

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Angela Keller-Herzog, executive director of Community Action for Environmental Sustainability (CAFES) Ottawa, said part of the framework of being a Bird Friendly City was keeping track of impactful progress.

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“Having this certification is another hook for accountability, tracking and measurement,” Keller-Herzog said. “That’s one of the reasons that CAFES is very happy to see this.”

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In addition to co-sponsoring the recent Jane’s Walk, Keller-Herzog said they’d also previously partnered with a community engagement class at Carleton University to help raise awareness about birds.

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“The theme was bird window collisions. We did some survey work led by a professor and then we had a workshop and did outreach to the community,” she said. “It was really well received.”

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Keller-Herzog said the first thing Ottawans could do to help protect birds was to go outside and look for them.

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“Take some joy in hearing the birdsong, especially in the morning,” she said. “I think that’s really important.”

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For bird photographer Danielle Lefrançois, birding has become a “great therapy.”

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“It’s amazing. I can say that it really helped me and it still is,” Lefrançois said. “You have to go into nature to really see more birds. When you see them up close in person, wow, it’s fascinating.”

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Lefrançois, who is also a member of the Friends of Mud Lake Facebook group, said her interest in birding started a few years ago when she saw a photo online of a wood duck at Mud Lake.

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According to the National Capital Commission, that west-end conservation area is home to 269 bird species.

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“I said, ‘What a beautiful duck.’ I’ve always liked taking pictures, but suddenly my interest just changed,” she said. “Instead of people, I started to want to take pictures of animals.”