A Bird Friendly City

In December 2024, Winnipeg passed a zoning bylaw amendment putting in place Bird Friendly Window Design guidelines and requirements for it’s new Malls and Corridors redevelopment strategy. These guidelines recognized that as we redevelop, birds need a lot more protection in our cities.

Among the species declines and extinctions we are seeing around the globe, birds in North America are one of the biggest losers. Since 1970, it is estimated that we have lost about 3 billion birds in North America. During that time, we have become a much more urbanized country and world. During those years the human population has exploded from 3.65 billion to 8.23 billion, much of that growth in cities.

Here in North America, many of our cities are along major migratory flyways. Winnipeg happens to be right in the Mississippi Flyway.

What this means is that in Canada up to an estimated 42 million birds per year die crashing into buildings. Because of human activity, everything from climate change to habitat loss, 75% of bird species in North America are in significant decline.

We have to do more to reduce the trend. We need to look at what action we can take to reduce bird mortality and enhance the environment. Many cities in Canada have enacted bird friendly policies. Nature Canada has a Bird Friendly City certification program. Many Canadian cities are certified to a varying degree. Winnipeg is notable that it does not have any level of certification.

Winnipeg, with its zoning amendment in December of 2024 took a step in the right direction. The requirements around window design specifically along Malls and Corridors is a good change. Like many cities, it is along corridors that we see the opportunity for adding intensity. More housing, more business, more amenities. Putting in a requirement that developers and builders use bird friendly windows should be a basic requirement. Winnipeg recognized this.

We all need to do more, we all have a responsibility to protect, enhance, and preserve our natural world. As we become a more urbanized species, we need to do more to consider the other species who use the same space as us.

So here we are. Winnipeg City Council is being asked to step back from their first steps towards being a bird friendly city. The development industry has said the requirements are too onerous, too expensive, too hard to achieve. But, in the year since the bird friendly window designs were required, there has only been one application for a building, and it has not been built yet.

I submitted comments to City Council opposing the repealing of the amendments.

One striking thing I saw in preparing this submission was the wide variety of birds I see in my yard and on my block. I live in the inner city of Winnipeg, close to Portage Avenue, a couple of blocks away from an intersection that has 27 lanes of traffic! This is a very urban area. It also has a lot of trees. And a lot of birds.

I keep track of the birds I see. I have seen well over 30 different species on my inner city street. Each one of them brings wonder and joy (maybe except the pigeons and house sparrows). I included some of them in the document above.

Succeeding generations deserve to experience the joy and wonder of seeing wildlife in their yard, on their block, in their city, no matter where they live. We have to do all we can to ensure that we are protecting what we have.

We mustn’t backtrack at the slightest of pushbacks.

Brian