I Can't Stop Thinking About Birds, and Maybe You Shouldn't Either

By Anvi Sharma, Founder, Collision-Free Coastline Network,

Birds have always been prominent to me and constantly taking up space in my brain, whether I like it or not. I'm not exactly sure about the science behind special interests, but my neurodivergence decided that birds are mine, meaning that I can be in the middle of something completely unrelated and a bird will catch my eye and suddenly nothing else exists. For a long time, that felt like an impulse and obsession I had to manage. Now, I understand it is one of the best things about me, because it means I will never stop caring about the creatures that need us most.

Reflecting on my experiences while birding, I noticed that when I went birdwatching at my favourite local spots, I almost never saw other young people. The birding community I found myself in was full of these incredibly wonderful & passionate people, but most of them were older. And I've learned so much from the experienced birders I've met along the way, people who have spent decades watching the same skies I was just beginning to notice. But when I started learning about the life-threatening challenges birds face due to prevalent architecture built without them in mind, including the billions that die every year from collisions with glass and from the artificial light that disorients them during migration, I realized that young people were not just absent from the spaces where birds are appreciated. We were absent from the conversations about saving them as well.

This is a dire problem with grave consequences, especially because every night during migration season, cities across the world blaze with light, and birds navigating by the stars get pulled off course, drawn toward lit buildings, and collide with glass they cannot see. It happens in every city, country, continent, you name it; birds cross every border we have ever drawn, and the threat follows them everywhere. And when it comes to the programs that educate and equip young people to take action against this issue, unfortunately the programs are not nearly as geographically widespread as the birds themselves.

That is why I founded the Collision-Free Coastline Network. I wanted to build the program I wish had existed when I was younger -- free, virtual, and open to anyone, anywhere, regardless of where they live. Today we have 75+ students across 65+ cities, 10 countries, and 6 continents, learning from experts at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, DarkSky International, Audubon, and more. Students are running lights-out campaigns, designing infographics, surveying windows at their schools, and documenting what they find.

If I had known at a younger age what I know now, I would have started sooner. But the truth is, it is never too early, and it is never too late. The birds migrating over your town tonight do not know how old you are, they just need the lights off and the glass marked -- solutions are that simple! And the young people who will grow up to protect them need to know that the door into conservation is open, right now, for them.

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Photo: ID 44636797 @ Sugiyono83 | Dreamstime.com

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