Emily Kwong (host, with guest Nell Greenfield‑Boyce also speaking within these segments)

This is a good sign, the fluttering, which means that hopefully, you know, he's just stunned and I'll take him to City Wildlife and the doctors will check him out.

So, you know, the vets tried to treat him.

They even put him in an oxygen chamber.

How'd he do?

Well, I'm sorry to tell you, but he did not make it.

I mean, most collision victims do not survive.

They can be going 30 miles per hour when they hit a window.

And so that means even if they initially fly away, they can have like concussions and broken bones.

But the thing is, there has been a lot of scientific research into how to stop this from happening.

And there are examples like there's a building in Chicago that, you know, show that there are solutions that can make a huge difference.

Bird strikes, a problem we created that we can fix.

It's true.

So today on the show, migrating birds and window collisions.

We'll look at a problem that's often invisible until it is suddenly not.

You're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.

Okay, Nell, so for this story, you went out with some bird-loving volunteers who every morning circle city sidewalks and collect window strike victims.

These are birds that have hit windows.

Is this mostly a problem in urban places with a lot of buildings?

No.

I mean, it's just that cities are where people tend to look, right?