home
> News
> How Better Glass Can Save Hundreds of Millions of Birds a Year
How Better Glass Can Save Hundreds of Millions of Birds a Year
November 13, 2014
How Better Glass Can Save Hundreds of Millions of Birds a Year
We can prevent birds from flying into windows with current technologies?experts say we just need the will.
We may be embarrassed to admit it, but we've all done it: run headlong into a window or sliding glass door that we just didn't see.
People usually escape with only a bruised ego. But when birds smack into windows, the results can be deadly.
In fact, as many as 600 million birds die in window collisions in the U.S. and Canada every year, scientists estimate. We may hear only the occasional thump as a sparrow or robin crashes into our home or office window, but they add up.
These collisions kill more birds than oil spills or pesticides do, says Daniel Klem Jr., an ornithologist at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The spring and fall migration periods are particularly deadly, with large flocks of birds navigating cities and suburbs that are littered with windows.
Klem has been working on the problem since the 1970s, but he's in rare company. Lack of funding and a limited understanding of how birds see are the main reasons why scientists, politicians, and the public seem to be playing catch-up.
But now solutions are starting to pop up on the market, including new kinds of glass with patterns that birds can see and avoid. (And no, those hawk decals don't work.)
If the glass industry can come out with products that satisfy researchers as to their bird-friendliness?as well as consumers looking to preserve their views?then these fledgling efforts have a real chance of saving millions of birds a year. (See "New Report Highlights Dire Situation of Many U.S. Birds.")
Read more at National Geographic.
category : Topics
