DARK SKIES
The city should retrofit its street lights and follow specific guidelines for new lighting models and designs. All outdoor lighting should be fully shielded, so that direct illumination from a fixture is confined to the property boundaries of the source, with time limits placed on outdoor and indoor commercial building lighting to limit the extent of artificial light exposure.
Berkeley should adopt a categorization mechanism for lighting use, with varying regulations on shielding, lumen output (amount of light produced by a bulb) and time limits. Specific efforts for bird protection could include reducing the number of street lights, this may be more feasible than expecting road lights to be turned off during the fledgling and migration periods. Additionally, to address human safety concerns, speed limits can be reduced and warning signals put in place during fledgling/ migration season.
The city should proactively monitor community compliance with bird safety requirements, as other bird-friendly cities do. Annual reports and studies can be carried out to measure the success and feasibility of light improvement projects, with the help of community members, local schools and universities, and students, increasing awareness and accountability and informing future goals and targets. These reports scan help establish with more certainty the level of bird mortality each year in Berkeley, causes of mortality and inform what effective measures can be introduced.
Berkeley should take advantage of opportunities for collaborative research, with partners such as faculty and students from UC Berkeley and Berkeley City College as well as major environmental organisations. Effective planning that is inclusive of non-human species, accurate and up-to-date data and analysis on avian population dynamics and changing human attitudes toward birds, is crucial for developing long-term strategies for the design and implementation of bird safe lighting.
For example, awareness campaigns designed and implemented by college students (nearly 40% of the city’s population), can promote the adoption of bird safe lighting practices in homes and dorms, helping to curb the impact of residential artificial lighting.
ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN
Window Replacement
The City of Berkeley should fund a subsidy program for retrofitting unsafe windows by identifying existing areas of high risk (i.e., proximity to parks) and prioritizes supporting low-income households and large residential building owners (10,000 square feet or more gross floor area, definition based on Berkeley’s proposed Bird-Safe Ordinance). To be the most effective, this recommendation should be implemented with accompanying public engagement measures, such as an informational campaign informing residents on options for creating bird-safe windows and a citizen science program
Bird Friendly Planning and Landscaping
Identify bird attractions on site: vegetated streetscapes and urban parks mature trees, shrubs, food sources and features that serve as habitat man made attractions such as water features, nesting sites, or perching sites (roofs, covers etc)
Site buildings to minimize conflicts with existing landscape features minimize the reflection of vegetation in windows and on building facades, isolate (existing) vegetation that is particularly attractive to birds, avoid the reflection of water on building facades on sites located near large bodies of water or water features.
Create bird safe landscaping; place new landscapes away from glazed building facades or windows to prevent reflections OR situate vegetation in close proximity to windows or glazing (3ft) so any reflections will be obscured minimize the refelction of rooftop landscapes onto surrounding buildings
Birdways of Berkeley
Improve the vegetation found in Berkeley's extensive network of existing bike and pedestrian pathways as a means to provide shelter, food, and refuge for birds in the city.
Plant native plant species that will flower and fruit on a rolling basis to provide food for birds year round, and insure that Birdway verges offer habitat for nesting, and soil rich in worms, insects, and nutrients important to avian diet and health.
DOMEESTIC CATS
The City of Berkeley should consider adopting a cat containment policy. As part of this long-term effort, the city should:
Conduct a community engagement effort with local wildlife and animal care organizations to raise awareness of the issue
Study the experience of other California cities with licensing requirements
Analyze ways to minimize burdens on existing residents
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
The City partner should partner with Golden Gate Audubon to create a "bird-friendly" certifications for buildings whose owners commit to one of the following:
Using bird-safe treatment for existing windows
Weekly monitoring of bird strikes around building perimeter and especially under windows
Hosting a bird-friendly garden (examples: New Hope Audubon Bird-Friendly Habitat and National Audubon Society's "How to Make Your Yard Bird-Friendly")
Comply with recommended bird-friendly lighting guidelines, such as shielded outdoor lighting and indoor blinds
As part of this effort, the City should:
Feature "bird-safe" certified buildings on its website and social media accounts
Create an online reporting tool to collect bird strike observations and make this data publicly available in a map that displays recorded bird strikes and "bird-safe" buildings
The City should create resources (or links to existing resources, such as those above) on bird-safe landscaping practices, including a list of local landscape businesses that use and are trained in bird-friendly practices. These businesses include:
Tree trimmers that use bird-friendly tree trimming practices
Nurseries that sell non-neonicotinoid treated plants
Landscapers committed to using native or neonicotinoid-free plants
The City should host regular urban citizen science programs that encourage participants to record their observations in eBird and iNaturalist. As part of this effort, the City could collaborate with existing local interest groups.