Bird-Safe Legislation and Guidelines

In North America, an estimated 1 billion birds die each year from window collisions. Governments at the federal, state/provincial, and municipal levels have started to enact policies that call for bird-safe buildings.  Cities have led the way (starting with Toronto, Ontario) with bird-safe guidelines and requirements, but higher-level governments have also begun to introduce legislation designed to reduce the risk of harm posed to birds by the built environment. Collisions with glass are among the most dangerous hazards that birds face as they navigate through human-altered landscapes, and the risk of harm has increased with the growing prevalence of glass in architectural design.  But humans don't have to give up the beauty and benefits of using glass on our buildings, because it is simple and easy to make glass safe for birds.  Raising awareness about how glass can be dangerous to birds- as well as how easy it is to mitigate this danger- is the key to saving birds from this threat. We hope that the bird-safe policies shown here will inspire more individuals, building owners, developers, architects, and governments to take action to protect birds from harmful window collisions.