Yarmouth fourth-graders going to bat for the birds

FORECASTER • November 8, 2022

Yarmouth fourth-graders are on a mission to make their school the first bird-safe school in the state. The 120 Yarmouth Elementary School pupils are participating in a collaborative project between the school’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math program, or STEAM, and BirdSafe Maine, a joint initiative of Maine Audubon, the Portland Society for Architecture and the University of Southern Maine to address the problem of bird window strikes in Maine. Each year, up to 1 billion birds die in the U.S. as a result of hitting buildings and reflective glass. The students have created “migration murals” on the windows to cut down on the reflection, but they hope a grant will result in permanent decals for the windows.