Join us on Saturday, May 10th as we celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) 2025! The theme this year is Shared Spaces: Creating Bird-Friendly Cities and Communities. As part of our family-friendly celebration, we will be painting one of the Visitor Center windows to help prevent bird-window collisions. Participants will help us paint (and you do not have to be an accomplished artist - think paint by number) and receive a bag of WMBD goodies, including window retrofitting stickers! Not feeling artistic? We will also have free WMBD posters and stickers! Activities will run 11:00am to 1:00pm or until the window is finished, and giveaways are first come, first served.
One of the ways in which Ottawa NWR creates shared spaces is by working to reduce bird-window collisions. Birds do not see or understand windows like we do, and reflections of the landscape on the windows confuse them, leading to birds colliding with windows. There are many ways to prevent this such as installing bird friendly glass or retrofitting existing windows with stickers, decals, or paint to reduce or eliminate landscape reflections and therefore reduce the chance of a bird flying into the glass. As part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Migratory Bird Program's Bird-Friendly Facility Challenge, Ottawa NWR retrofitted our Visitor Center windows all three ways 3 years ago! Some of the painted windows are starting to fade or chip, so periodically, local artists will come in to give the windows a refresh. By covering the outside of the glass with non-toxic tempera paint, the Visitor Center is not only more beautiful but bird-friendly too!