Gardens and bird nests high in the sky

Photo by Kelly Luckett

Many green roofs attract nesting birds

The photo above was taken by Kelly Luckett at the Wildwood Community College in Wildwood, Missouri, USA.   It is representative of not only the explosion in the incidence of green roofs but also of how birds are adopting the new roof-top habitats across North America and many other parts of the World.   It certainly came as a surprise to me to read that the megalopolis of Toronto (just 15 minutes from where I live) has just been ranked the number two city in a new report from the non-profit Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC), which has ranked the top ten North American metropolitan regions that have installed the most square footage of green roofs last year.   Washington, D.C. was the number one city, a position it has held for the past four years.   Philadelphia, Chicago and New York rounded out the top five.   My wife, Linda was quick to tell me that in her opinion, former Toronto mayor David Miller (currently CEO of the WWF-Canada), was as much a force behind this as anyone.   Green roofs are now attracting nesting birds in increasing numbers.   An unanticipated hazard of this is that birds are safe on the green roofs themselves but are in danger of crashing into the windows of Toronto's many glass business towers nearby.   Deterrents to prevent these collisions are late being designed and installed, but are being worked upon.   Hopefully, this will have a happy ending for the situation, not just in Toronto, but throughout cities worldwide.
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