A Toronto-based wildlife charity says the estimated 25 million bird deaths that occur each year in Ontario due to bird-building collisions will only grow with promises by all parties in the upcoming election to create more housing in order to alleviate the province’s deepening housing crisis.

Birds, like frogs, are widely considered to be an environmental bellwether, a proverbial canary in the coal mine when it comes to climate change — and here in North America, birds are vanishing at an alarming rate.

FLAP Canada said it wants all parties to enshrine bird-friendly design concepts for new buildings into Ontario’s Building Code in order minimize the impact millions of new homes would have on the already staggering toll of birds killed by collisions with office towers, apartment buildings and single-detached homes.

Michael Mesure, the organization’s executive director, said despite the fact that housing and environmental issues are connected through bird deaths, it’s been hard to gain traction on the issue of bird-friendly design, which he said would only add “negligible” costs to a developer’s bottom line.

“I think there’s this mind’s eye perspective that what we ask is either too much or is just going to interfere with the development of new construction, costs go up, esthetics,” Mesure said.

“It’s simple, it’s effective and, quite frankly, the cost is proven to be quite negligible.”

The measures vary, and costs range from free to millions of dollars. They can be as simple as adding stickers to windows and moving plants toward the centre of buildings, but they can also be as complicated as modifying an entire building’s design.

Still, advocates say the price is worth it — and major Ontario cities such as London, Hamilton, Ottawa and Toronto are already doing it. But bird conservationists want the standards applied to all new construction provincewide.

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