Bird strikes are one of the leading causes of bird deaths every year, which is why the Audubon Nature Center and Aquarium collaborated with an artist to paint a mural on the almost wall-length window in its children’s area.

With the new mural, Jeff Hall, the center’s executive director, hopes to limit the deaths of birds colliding with the window and spread awareness within the community of the danger.

“For the birds, with the reflection, it just looks like a mirror, and all they see is the field, and they hit it. You just have to do something that breaks the reflection so the birds notice something isn’t right,” Hall said.

The artist, Mike Genovese of Mike’s Painted Signs, was inspired by the natural environment that could be seen outside the window he was painting, and his mural project transformed from a simple endeavor to eliminate bird strikes and educate the community about the dangers, to an appeal for a general embrace of nature.

“Initially, the design objective was to create a painting on the glass so the birds don’t fly into the glass. What’s painted on the window became this environmental interactive thing that collaborated with nature, rather than just depicting it,” Genovese said.

“It’s really beautiful, with the window facing a meadow, because all of the foliage around it is moving, and so it’s blending into the painting,” said Genovese.

One of the main goals of the Audubon Center is to get people out into nature and to lower the barrier that prevents them from experiencing it, said Hall.

“Looking through a painting as they’re looking at a painting. They’re seeing a squirrel get into a bird feeder or these beautiful little birds flying around in circles or these hummingbirds coming through the window,” Gevonvese said.

Hall said, “We want to make this the gateway to Audubon. As people learn about nature, they begin to appreciate it, and if they appreciate it, they value it, and if they value, it they work to protect things they value.”