How dangerous are buildings for birds? One building, one night, 996 dead birds

We’ve all heard the thud or seen the startling display of a bird slamming into a window or sliding glass door. It’s a bit gruesome, and thankfully it’s a rare occurrence.

Or is it?

David Willard spends his early mornings picking up dead birds and has done so for decade upon decade. One morning, he collected 996 dead birds, victims of a collision with a single building. See David’s story in this YaleEnvironment360 article.

But does it have to be this way?

One might presume that city skylines are already designed and built, and the buildings already have windows. (We wouldn’t want it any other way). Thus, it might seem inevitable that birds are always going to fly smack dab into buildings and, sadly, die. On the other hand, can’t we do better?

Surely we can do better

With the backdrop of 3 billion birds missing from North America’s skies, it feels that we must try to make the buildings we build safer for birds.

Architects are designing buildings that are indeed better for birds. Check out this story in The Guardian about some of the new designs. Here’s an excerpt: “Architects are increasingly integrating screens or grates that provide shade as well as visibility for birds. The 52-floor New York Times building, for example, uses fritted glass clad with ceramic rods.”

Architects aren’t the only ones looking into this. At a policy level, there’s an important bipartisan bill in Congress. It’s called the Federal Bird Safe Buildings Act, introduced by Reps. Morgan Griffith, a Republican from Virginia, and Mike Quigley, a Democrat from Illinois. A big thanks to them both. 

The idea is simple. New federal buildings will need to incorporate ways to reduce bird fatalities. Ditto for major redesigns of existing federal buildings.

For those wondering if federal buildings are somehow more problematic than private buildings, the answer is no. It’s a place to start, and start we must if we are to reduce the gruesome thuds of birds meeting sudden death by slamming into windows.