Causes and Solutions for Bird Collisions with Glass Curtain Wall Buildings

In urban areas, bird collisions with glass curtain wall buildings are a major contributing factor to avian mortality. The goal of this paper is to explore how material property, structural design, and artificial lighting of glass curtain walls participate in bird collisions. Among the factors, high reflectivity, concavities in structures, and nighttime lighting are established as the most prominent in increasing the risk of collision and mortality. Suggestions are tailored to using high-transmittance or patterned glass and designing structures flat or more open plus reducing artificial light during migration seasons, which all might work toward bird-friendly architecture and biodiversity conservation.