Making Georgia Tech Safer for Migrating Birds

Photos R to L: A section of the campus that was treated for bird collisions. Amanda Janusz, Kaitlyn Tran, and Shivani Potdar have been leading the efforts at Georgia Tech. Photos courtesy Shivani Potdar.

The student-run Bird Safe Campus Project at Georgia Tech (GT) aims to reduce bird collisions through two main methods: installing bird-safe film on campus buildings and turning off lights at night that disorient migrating birds. Over the past three years, the team consisting of Kaitlyn Tran (IE ‘23), Shivani Potdar (ChBE ‘25), and Amanda Janusz (CS ‘25), has raised awareness about this issue across the Georgia Tech community.

“The Georgia Tech campus serves as a valuable oasis for Atlanta wildlife. To date, more than 130 species of birds have been recorded via our eBird hotspot. These birds are a large part of what gives our campus character, and it’s devastating to see the lethal damage that our buildings inflict on our most beloved species, from tiny jewel-like Ruby-throated Hummingbirds to our majestic Red-tailed Hawks. It forms a pit in your stomach to see a bird on the ground just because no one thought to install bird-safe glass, or to turn off lights," says Amanda Janusz. 

Through educational tabling, collaboration with campus sustainability groups and Birds Georgia, and meetings with GT administration, the team encouraged students, faculty, and staff to report any dead or injured bird sightings to nationally-recognized data collection website dbird.org. Since the start of the project, more than 400 data points have been recorded so far on the GT campus alone. In 2022, the team succeeded in installing motion sensor lights in select campus buildings to prevent nighttime migration collisions.

Most recently, in April 2024, the team completed a partnership with Georgia Tech campus facilities to retrofit a collision hotspot with bird-safe film. The group installed Feather Friendly film, which was provided at a discount as part of the Feather Friendly Project Recognition Program. A fully transparent pedestrian walkway connecting two classroom buildings was one of the campus’ major problem areas for the local bird population. The students raised 100% of the funds for the project through grants.

This recent retrofit is the first instance of bird-safe film on Georgia Tech’s campus. “We want this to serve as a model for the future of GT’s campus. I hope this can help educate the community about bird collisions, and how it should be a consideration when it comes to designing ecologically-friendly buildings,” says Kaitlyn Tran.

Shivani Potdar agreed, saying “Using the walkway installation as an example, we hope to now expand bird-safe film to other collision hotspots on campus. In the future, we hope to eventually have bird-safe film as a requirement in Georgia Tech’s building design guidelines.”

Adam Betuel, Birds Georgia's director of conservation, has been working with these students for several years in an advisory capacity to help guide their efforts. "It has been a great experience working with these Georgia Tech students to make the campus safer for migrating birds. In recent years, Georgia Tech has made great strides to green and bring nature to campus, and this work will hopefully continue to aid in this progress. In the future, we plan to continue working with these and others students, as well as faculty and staff, to make this urban campus more bird friendly."

Birds Georgia volunteers and Georgia Tech students have been monitoring the campus for collisions over the past nine years, detecting hundreds of birds. Successes like this film installation, as well as the bird-friendly Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, are steps toward a bird-safe campus.