Aligned across many modern cityscapes, on both low- and high-rise architecture, sit glass-paned buildings. While the windows, reflecting the natural and urban environment around them, are seemingly harmless, their existence kills up to 1 billion birds each year in the U.S., according to the American Bird Conservancy.
“That’s a significant drain on the population and therefore on the ecosystem as well,” said David Aborn, a professor who studies the effect of urbanization on bird populations at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
According to the National Audubon Society, an organization that works to protect birds and their environments, glass windows posit a danger to birds. Due to the glass reflecting the habitat and open sky outward, many birds, not perceiving the barrier in their path, collide with the glass and fall to their deaths.
While buildings in Chattanooga aren’t as notorious for their bird deaths as those in larger cities — such as Chicago’s McCormick Place — heavily windowed buildings in the area do pose a threat to the nearly 200 bird species that migrate through East Tennessee each year.