Preventing Bird-Window Collisions

Window and glass building strikes kill up to 1 billion birds annually in North America alone; simple, affordable solutions can dramatically reduce this mortality.

Key Facts

Birds cannot perceive glass as a barrier and collide at high speed causing concussion, fractures, and death
Reflections of sky and vegetation in glass are particularly dangerous for migrating birds
Patterns visible in the ultraviolet spectrum help birds avoid glass but must be spaced appropriately
UV-patterned window film products are available and effective for both residential and commercial buildings
Building certification schemes now include bird-safe glass requirements in some jurisdictions

Welfare Considerations

Bird-window collisions cause both immediate deaths and delayed mortality from injuries including internal haemorrhaging, broken beaks, and traumatic brain injury. Birds that appear to recover from a strike and fly away may die hours later from internal injuries. The scale of this mortality is enormous: in the US alone, an estimated 600 million to 1 billion birds die from window strikes each year. The solution is available and increasingly affordable: UV-patterned films applied to glass surfaces prevent most strikes by making glass visible to birds while remaining virtually invisible to humans.

What You Can Do

Apply UV-patterned window film to large glass windows in your home
Advocate for bird-safe glass requirements in new building planning regulations
Report window strike incidents to citizen science databases to map collision hotspots
Move bird feeders to within 1 metre of windows to reduce collision momentum
Support organisations campaigning for bird-safe building design standards