Dive Brief:
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The oversized windows that helped Duke University earn LEED certification for its Fitzpatrick Center killed 85 birds in nine weeks — more than any other building on campus.
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And more birds die from slamming into buildings at Duke than on any other campus in a 45-school survey by Augustana College.
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The campus is located along the Atlantic Flyway, a bird migration route, according to Duke’s Bird Window Collision Project. Scott Winton, a leader of the project, told The News & Observer that LEED and other programs reward designs that invite natural light because it helps reduce energy use. Approximately 1 billion birds die each year when they collide with windows, the American Bird Conservancy has estimated.
Dive Insight:
The Bird Window Collision Project is brainstorming with the university about ways to retrofit the glass windows so they kill fewer birds. Options include covering the glass with UV-reflective films, which birds can see, or etching a pattern into the glass.
Another high-profile, glass-covered building — the new Vikings football stadium in Minnesota — also has come under fire for its potential to kill birds who mistake the expansive panes as natural.
Despite efforts by the Audubon Society and other critics to convince the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority to install “fritted” glass — etched in a way that birds can detect it — the panel declined in January, saying the design change would add as much as $60 million to construction costs.
