The trouble with glass buildings

Sometimes birds appear to recover from their injuries and fly away, but they may later suffer internal hemorrhaging and brain swelling that leads to death.

In the United States, up to 1 billion birds die each year from hitting windows. Although there is a lack of data, scientists estimate that the issue is on a similar scale in China, given that the country's east coast is on a major migratory route for birds.

Li launched the survey after witnessing a dozen bird collisions on campus. In 2018, the scholar and her students delivered a report to the university, recommending that it replace windows where most of the collisions happened.

The school authorities worried that such an effort would damage the aesthetics of the buildings. After several discussions, they compromised, using stickers to decorate windows and reduce glass reflections, Li recalled.

This simple effort resulted in collisions at the site being reduced to almost zero.

In the design plan for the second phase of the campus project, Li saw that several of her suggestions were adopted: lowering the use of large windows; adding window designs with strips or other patterns to reduce reflections; and renovating glass corridors.

A similar attempt has been made at Futian Mangrove Ecological Park in Shenzhen, a city with the world's second-highest number of buildings over 150 meters tall. In August 2020, local conservation worker Rong Canzhong attached customized bird-shaped stickers to break up the reflectivity of the glass in the park.

"As for the aesthetic problem, we already have solutions to this issue," Rong said, pointing to the range of attractive stickers on offer.