“Solid Air: Invisible Killer- Saving Billions of Birds from Windows,” by Dr. Daniel Klem Jr., Part 1 of 2

For the past 47 years, Dr. Daniel Klem Jr., a renowned United States ornithologist, has dedicated his research, writing, and teaching to the study of bird-people. Presently, he holds the position of Sarkis Acopian Professor of Ornithology and Conservation Biology at Muhlenberg College. In his 2021 book, “Solid Air: Invisible Killer- Saving Billions of Birds from Windows,” Dr. Klem sheds light on the phenomenon of bird-people collisions with clear and reflective window panes, and the solutions to this conservation issue.

Today, we are honored to invite Dr. Klem to share his research with us. “And perhaps the most important motive of all was writing the book to try to attract a critical mass of the general public to then go on to inform those authorities and those constituencies that could do something to solve it, to inform them, convince them, and have them take up action to protect these animals that we all care so much about.” “That 365 figure is even more dramatic when you realize that that’s a million birds a day that die flying into windows, in one year, on the low end!”

In his book, Dr. Klem provides practical solutions for preventing bird-people window collisions. “I typically divide up solutions into two levels, short-term and long-term. Short-term is, think about the world as it is today: it’s filled with buildings, with windows. They have to be retrofitted to protect the animals. The long-term solution is getting glass manufacturers to produce glass from the very beginning that’s bird safe, and this would be placed in remodeling or new construction.” Our most beloved Supreme Master Ching Hai (vegan) shares with us Her experience applying a similar solution with a beautiful blue bird-person called De.