It’s estimated that between 1 and 10 migratory birds die per building, per year… and in an average city, that means a lot of bird deaths. Toronto alone has over 950,000 registered buildings, which together post a threat to over 9 million birds annually, and a recent research article found that somewhere between 100 million and 1 billion migrating birds die from colliding with buildings in North America each year. BuzzBuzz Home has reported that FLAP (Fatal Light Awareness Program) is aiming to change that, by ensuring that new buildings have bird-friendly glass installed, and older buildings are retrofitted with it.
Toronto is right smack in the middle of one of the busiest migratory corridors in the world, and thousands of neotropical songbirds migrate during the night while the city is sleeping. They get disoriented by the reflection of trees on glass windows, and either die from collisions, or get stunned and fall to their deaths. Michael Mesure, founder of FLAP, is on a mission to save these feathered friends, and Canada is listening. In 2007, the City of Toronto implemented Bird Friendly Development Guidelines to ensure that both new and existing buildings were made safer for birds, by using fritted glass, or Ornilux; a new glass that has ultraviolet patterns only visible to birds’ eyes. Glass panels on existing structures that have the most bird collisions are now being replaced, and developers are now required to use bird-safe glass in new residential and commercial buildings.
+ FLAP (Fatal Light Awareness Program)
+ BuzzBuzz Home
Images via BuzzBuzz and Shutterstock
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