Save a Billion Birds!

Advancing ornithology through 
light science, practical design, and inclusive nature access.

Save a Billion Birds!: Ornithology and Action

Birds are among the most visually sophisticated vertebrates on Earth. Their survival depends on finely tuned light perception — ultraviolet sensitivity, polarized light detection, and seasonal photoperiod regulation that governs migration and reproduction. Birds have been described as 'eyes with wings', and it's a pwerful insight. ZLI's Save a Billion Birds™ advances ornithology within the ZLI Framework while translating that science into measurable conservation action.

This campaign integrates research, architectural reform, and equitable access — ensuring that avian photobiology informs both wildlife survival and civic responsibility. 

Feature animal

Birds (Aves) — chosen because their sensory biology sits at the crossroads of visual ecology + migratory adaptation + environmental change (polarized light gradients, spectral reflectance, artificial night lighting, and climate-shifted seasonal timing). Birds are evolutionary specialists in perceiving optical structure across air, water, forest canopy, and urban space. Their physiology anchors rigorous education about light as a governing ecological force in terrestrial ecosystems.

Birders, ornithologists, urban ecologists, BirdLife International, nature centers, and science educators are natural collaborators in this initiative. Save a Billion Birds™ is structured around four pillars: research, practical design, media, and community access.

Pillar One: Research

ZLI's Save a Billion Birds™ Research Endowment supports peer-reviewed avian science, early-career investigators, and translational visual ecology focused on how optical and architectural environments shape behavior, health, and conservation outcomes.

Contributions may fund:

• Seed grants and fellowships (avian visual ecology + collision science)

• Data-driven science, such as collision monitoring and ZALA aligned light-assessment programs

• Adcocaacy Media and Nature Access Programs

• Long-term endowed research positions and institutional partnerships

This portfolio connects optical environments to migration timing, flight behavior, habitat navigation, stress physiology, urban survival, and population resilience.

Sponsors may underwrite named research awards, monitoring programs, symposia, media projects, or permanent endowed chairs advancing the sciences of light and life, including architectural science.

Pillar Two: Practical Design

Integrated Certification for Bird-Friendly Development

Save a Billion Birds! advances a unified, science-based certification framework that addresses avian mortality through total threat-factor adoption — not piecemeal mitigation.

While many current programs focus on isolated measures (window films, seasonal light reductions, or voluntary policies), SBB promotes a comprehensive optical-environment strategy aligned with avian biology and measurable outcomes.

This pillar translates research into deployable standards across the full built envelope.

ZLI Bird-Friendly Certification System

ZLI’s tiered certification system provides clear, scalable benchmarks for adoption:

Certified

Foundational mitigation measures addressing primary collision risks in glazing and artificial light exposure.
85% effective by tested standards as all building surfaces must maintain an ABC threat factor of 20 or less.

Silver

Expanded façade treatment coverage and documented monitoring participation.
90% effective by tested standards, as all building surfaces must maintain an ABC threat factor of 10 or less.

Gold

Comprehensive treatment of glazing, façade reflectivity, nighttime illumination strategy, and integration of optical measurement standards.
95% effective by tested standards, as all building surfaces must maintain an ABC threat factor of 5 or less.

Platinum

Full-spectrum threat mitigation across glazing, lighting, orientation, monitoring, and long-term ecological reporting — aligned with ZALA measurement protocols and institutional transparency. 99% effective by tested standards, as all building surfaces must maintain an ABC threat factor of 1.

Each tier reflects cumulative adoption of known collision risk factors, encouraging systemic implementation rather than isolated compliance.

Contributions Support:

• Independent validation of certified materials and façade systems

• Field monitoring of performance by certification tier

• Development of reproducible optical measurement standards (ZALA-aligned)

• Architectural and engineering continuing education, including public media projects

• Municipal and institutional pilot programs

• Data reporting frameworks for ESG and sustainability disclosures

Why Integration Matters

Avian mortality is rarely caused by a single factor.

It is the interaction of:

• Reflectivity

• Transparency

• Artificial night lighting

• Vegetation placement

• Migration timing

• Urban density

Addressing one variable while ignoring others limits effectiveness.

ZLI’s Certification system encourages total adoption of known mitigation strategies within a structured, economically rational pathway.

The objective is clarity:

• A building should know where it stands.

• Investors should know what they are supporting.

• Communities should see measurable reductions.

Finance & Incentives

ZLI’s 'Little Birds' Certification system  integrates with ZLI’s Little Birds Initiative, aligning bird-friendly design with:

• Stewardship participation

• Corporate ESG signaling

• Tax-aligned charitable engagement

• Transparent ecological reporting

Bird-friendly design should not be niche compliance. It should be a recognized development standard and incentivized for the public good.

Pillar Three: PhotoDiversity Media

Public Education & Cultural Programming

Save a Billion Birds!'s Media Pillar expands scientific insight and practical design into public understanding through mission-aligned film, animation, and educational programming produced in collaboration with PhotoDiversity Films. While the Research Endowment advances peer-reviewed science and Practical Design implements measurable solutions, the Media portfolio translates these advances into narrative, educational, and cultural forms that broaden access to nature and environmental literacy.

Contributions support:

• Development of educational series grounded in avian visual ecology
• Narrative storytelling that explores birding, migration, and identity
• Youth programming that cultivates early conservation awareness
• Festival, museum, and institutional partnerships
• Global distribution aligned with conservation outcomes

This portfolio connects science, design, and culture — expanding the reach of collision mitigation and bird-friendly development through accessible storytelling. Sponsors may underwrite specific productions, educational distribution initiatives, or named media fellowships advancing public engagement with the science of light and life.

Suite Loglines

•  The Green Year™ (信仰への恐怖 | INHUMANITIES Anime)
  • a global coming-of-age journey following a young birder across continents, confronting migration, different forms of racism, and the preventable tragedy of the indifference leading to bird-window collisions.
    
• Reparations™ (賠償金 | KUYŌ SHŌKON Cinema)
  • a historical drama tracing Nikkei migration and intergenerational displacement, linking environmental identity, land, and resilience across continents.
    
    
• Save a Billion Birds!™ (10億羽の鳥を救おう！ | PhotoDiversity Education)
  • a science-forward educational series exploring avian vision and perceptual ecology, translating collision mitigation research into classroom, museum, and architectural practice.
    
    
• Du Maurier™ (デュ・モーリア | Pholktale Animation)
  • ◦ a painterly reimagining of 'The Birds' through a child’s perspective, transforming ecological anxiety into compassion.
    
    
• Petah’s Party™ (ペタのパーティー | ChibiKama Playtime)
  • a joyful stop-motion children’s series where creativity and bird discovery cultivate resilience, artistic confidence, and early conservation awareness.

Pillar Four: Community Access

Biking for Birds™

Save a Billion Birds!'s Community Access pillar expands equitable participation in birding while directly supporting collision mitigation and conservation education. Biking for Birds™ increases nature access by combining rideshare mobility, birding engagement, and structured programming into a scalable, community-based solution.

Contributions support:

• Deployment of rideshare bicycles designated for birding routes (ARC-aligned mobility access)
• Birding gear libraries to reduce economic barriers to participation
• Educational and fundraising programming tied to collision awareness
• Community-based collision monitoring and reporting initiatives
• Institutional partnerships supporting equitable outdoor access

This portfolio connects mobility, urban design, and environmental literacy — fostering inclusive access to birds while advancing measurable conservation outcomes. Sponsors may underwrite named mobility stations, community birding events, or endowed outreach initiatives supporting equitable nature access and collision mitigation awareness.

Photobiological Connection 
(ZLI Framework)

Save a Billion Birds! applies ZLI’s three scientific domains of photobiology—photo-physiology, sensory ecology, and integrative biology—to determine which projects the charity will fund and how existing research is to be catalogued.

Photo-Physiology:

Avian visual systems are finely tuned to spectral sensitivity, motion detection, polarization cues, and rapid light transitions during flight. Day/night cycles regulate endocrine rhythms, migration readiness, orientation, and stress physiology. SBB examines how reflective glazing, artificial light at night, and spectral distortion interfere with these regulatory systems.

Sensory Ecology:

Birds navigate complex aerial optical fields—sky polarization gradients, canopy filtering, surface reflections, and horizon contrast. Architectural glass creates perceptual traps by duplicating sky and habitat signals without structural continuity. SBB studies how evolved perceptual systems interpret optical cues—and how disrupted urban environments distort flight behavior, navigation, and welfare.

Integrative Biology:

Save a Billion Birds! applies ZLI’s three scientific domains of photobiology—photo-physiology, sensory ecology, and integrative biology—to avian species as models of evolutionary adaptation to aerial optical environments and urban light disruption.

Why Save a Billion Birds! Matters
(And Why It Requires Partnership)

Avian sensory systems are built for continuous, structured aerial environments. When optical environments shift—through reflective glazing, transparent façades, artificial light at night, and dense urban illumination—perception shifts with them. The consequences scale from individuals to populations: navigational error, increased collision mortality, disrupted migration timing, elevated stress physiology, and cumulative population decline.

But birds do not exist apart from people.

Access to birds—and to the landscapes they inhabit—shapes human well-being, cultural identity, and environmental literacy. For many communities, including members of the Black Birders Network and other historically excluded groups, safe and equitable access to outdoor spaces remains uneven. Urban design that degrades habitat, increases collision risk, and reduces visible biodiversity also narrows opportunities for meaningful engagement with nature.

Birds are often the most accessible form of wildlife in cities. When they disappear—or when their presence is diminished by preventable architectural harm—the loss is ecological and social.

By advancing peer-reviewed avian research, implementing integrated certification standards, supporting community mobility initiatives like Biking for Birds™, and translating science through PhotoDiversity media, Save a Billion Birds converts measurement into mitigation and conservation into shared participation.

SBB does not rely on symbolism. It relies on photobiology, systems design, and equitable access.

Partnership in this campaign is an investment in measurable resilience—across species, across cities, and across communities.

Support Save a Billion Birds!

Your gift advances peer-reviewed research, integrated bird-friendly design adoption, and equitable community access to nature.

Employer matching may be available through your workplace giving program.
For real-estate donations visit www.saveabillionbirds.org or contact usat 01.212.317.2927 directly.