Building design choices have enormous impacts on bird strike mortality, with specific architectural features either dramatically increasing or reducing collision risk.
Building design is a leverage point for bird welfare at the population level. A single glass-facade building in a migration corridor can kill hundreds or thousands of birds annually — the cumulative mortality from modern glass architecture across cities represents a significant conservation and welfare impact. The good news is that bird-safe design features are increasingly available, architecturally elegant, and mandated in some jurisdictions. The retrofit market — making existing dangerous buildings safer — is growing alongside awareness of the scale of this welfare problem.