By incorporating proven technologies and materials, bird-friendly buildings reduce threats to birds without sacrificing attractiveness, functionality, or natural lighting.
Explore the resources below to learn more about bird-friendly building design, including design options, comprehensive lists of bird-friendly materials, and why birds hit glass.
Visit our photo gallery to see how a variety of materials and techniques can be used to make buildings safe for birds and great for people.
Bird-Friendly Building Design provides a complete overview of collisions and solutions. This includes information on how birds see the world, the threats that glass poses, collision prevention techniques, and the science behind those solutions. The guide can be ordered in hard copy or downloaded free of charge.
Looking for glass for a new building or a solution to fix existing windows? Click here to search our database of materials that will prevent glass collisions.
ABC offers bird-friendly building design courses for American Institute of Architects and LEED continuing education credit. Both in-person classes and webinars are available. To learn more about bird-safe buildings, contact Dr. Christine Sheppard by clicking below.
Many local governments in the U.S. and Canada now require some level of bird-friendly design. We provide a model ordinance, a summary of existing bird-friendly building codes, guidance on writing and promoting legislation, and much more.
If you are designing a LEED-rated building, think about birds in the design phase and earn the popular collisions credit. We'll show you how! Download the Materials Table here
Learn more about ABC's research and evaluation program, which safely uses real birds to test bird-safe glass collision solutions and ensure their effectiveness.
New York City's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center was a notorious source of bird collisions. When bird-friendly glass was installed as part of a major renovation to improve energy efficiency, collisions declined by more than 90 percent. Watch the video for a brief overview of this successful bird-strike prevention project.
ABC's collisions experts, Christine Sheppard, Ph.D., and Bryan Lenz, Ph.D., answer 14 of the most frequently asked questions about bird strikes.
