# CE; # CON

Project Title: Safe Flight – Education on Preventing Bird Collisions with Glass Surfaces
Project Commencement Year: 2016
Status: Active
Type: Wild Birds

Project Summary:
This project addresses one of the most significant threats to wild birds: collisions with human-made structures, particularly glass surfaces. Due to their high flight speeds, birds often sustain fatal injuries when striking glass obstacles. In response, Zagreb Zoo is committed to making its grounds safer for flying birds by actively monitoring collision occurrences, recording locations, and assessing the frequency of incidents. Based on these assessments, appropriate protective measures are developed for hazardous glass surfaces. A specially designed protective film has been created and tested in the most dangerous areas, with plans to offer it to the public.

The zoo’s efforts also include educating visitors about global threats facing wildlife, particularly raising awareness of issues impacting local flora and fauna. This project aims to increase public awareness of the need to conserve and protect local wildlife through key objectives: educating zoo visitors and the broader community about bird collisions with glass surfaces, offering practical tools to address this issue in homes, demonstrating best practices within the zoo, and promoting local wildlife conservation among students and the general public.

Key objectives include the development of high-quality educational materials about wild birds, such as a publication that highlights the importance of wildlife conservation and individual impacts on local species. The zoo has implemented the best solutions in critical areas to reduce bird fatalities caused by glass collisions. Bilingual educational content (in Croatian and English) accompanies these surfaces to emphasize the importance of such solutions and encourage easy implementation at home. The zoo also encourages other institutions to adopt similar measures.

This project seeks to strengthen connections among zoo staff, external educators, and volunteers, enhancing both quantitative and qualitative outreach in raising awareness about local fauna conservation. It will involve the public, including “citizen scientists,” who can play a crucial role in bird conservation initiatives.

To promote wildlife conservation among students, a poster highlighting key issues and guidance on how schools and homes can help protect birds has been created. This poster is permanently distributed to every school group participating in the zoo’s educational programs. The project actively involves the Private Artistic High School in Zagreb, where students contribute by designing stickers to be distributed to the public as part of an effective solution to prevent bird collisions with glass in private and public buildings.

Summary:

Collisions with human-made structures, particularly glass surfaces, pose a serious threat to wild birds, which is why the Zagreb Zoo has launched a project aimed at enhancing bird safety in its premises. The project includes monitoring and protecting hazardous glass surfaces, raising awareness among visitors about the importance of bird conservation, and partnering with local schools to create innovative solutions, such as designing stickers to help reduce collision rates.