Joe Gyekis began to think seriously about the growing number of dead birds on the University Park campus in 2018. Gyekis ’06 Sci, an associate professor of biobehavioral health, reached out to his friend and fellow birding enthusiast Tim O’Connell ’99 PhD Agr, a wildlife ecologist at Oklahoma State University, who was researching window collisions. After talking with O’Connell and others doing similar work, Gyekis says, “I decided to start collecting data and cataloging bird deaths on campus to try and figure out the extent of the problem, to advocate for the issue, and figure out how to solve this problem.”

Migratory birds, many of which fly through the campus in the fall and the spring, are particularly prone to window collisions, says Gyekis, who has been an avid bird-watcher since childhood. Sadly, more than 80 species of birds—including several that are a rarity in the area, such as the ovenbird, a type of warbler, and the cedar waxwing, a flocking bird that loves berries—have been killed in campus window collisions. Woodpeckers, hummingbirds, brown thrashers, and others have met a similar fate. Across the country, these accidents add up to well over a million birds per day, says Gyekis, and contribute to the overall decline of bird populations.

In 2020, Gyekis teamed up with Chyvonne Jessick ’22 Agr, then an interested student and a recipient of an Erickson Discovery Grant for student research. With the support of the State College Bird Club, they launched PSU Bird Strikes, later renamed Bird Safe Penn State. The group advocates on social media for bird safety and makes presentations throughout the community to raise awareness around the issue. “More and more students began reporting dead birds through Instagram,” Gyekis says, “and we have gotten a ton of support from our fundraisers.”

Bird Safe Penn State works closely with the Sustainability Institute and the Office of the Physical Plant. The group has also worked with Shari Edelson and Casey Sclar from the Arboretum at Penn State, and with Greg Kufner and Julie Hedgeland, former and current university architects. Edelson coordinated the installation of hanging strands, which deter birds from colliding with windows, on the Arboretum office; Kufner helped secure funding for bird-safe glass to be placed on the first floor of the new Susan Welch Liberal Arts Building.

Edelson and Kufner also coordinated the installation of ultraviolet patterned glass on the corridor connecting the two sides of the Palmer Museum of Art, as well as the bird-safe metal shades that were installed to limit the sunlight hitting the artworks.