Bird-friendly glass

What is Bird-Friendly Glass

Bird Safe Glass for commercial and residential glazings

The Problem with Birds and Glass

According to the American Bird Conservancy, millions of birds die each year after collisions with glass from buildings and homes. The visibility of most birds is often obstructed by reflective windows during both daytime and night-time. Most birds can’t see the glass well enough to distinguish shine, reflection, or deception to steer clear. In addition to endangering the lives of these precious animals, birds colliding with windows can often cause property damage, resulting in paying for replacement windows and other associated costs.

The Bird-Friendly Glass Solution

Bird-friendly glass can be created during manufacturing or post-production to help birds in flight see the glass ahead. This also allows businesses and families to avoid the glass on their property being damaged. Bird-friendly glass is strategically designed to be more visible by incorporating lines, dots, or other visible patterns into the glass using glass silk-screened printing or digital printing techniques. Research shows that the most effective way of protecting birds is by using lines spaced two inches apart for horizontal rows or four inches apart for vertical rows. When printed correctly, bird-friendly glass is not visible to the human eye but is extremely visible to birds.

Benefits of Bird-friendly Glass

Key Product Features

Collision deterrence

Adding visual contrast to the glass through various methods creates a visible marker to birds, helping them detect the glass as a physical barrier and avoid it. The effectiveness of the solution depends on the technology used as well as the size and spacing of the pattern elements. The building’s surroundings, lighting conditions and the outside reflectivity of the glazing also play a role in the solution’s effectiveness.

Aesthetics

Depending on the technology, bird-friendly glass solutions can be more or less visible to humans from the outside of the building. Bird-friendly glass treatments can be used as design elements to make a statement, or they may be more subtle for a minimalist look. From inside the building, the visibility of a bird deterrent depends on the lighting and the complexity of the scenery outside. Many patterns are designed to disappear when viewed from a distance virtually.

Energy performance

Bird-friendly solutions can be combined with high-performance coatings to provide thermal insulation and solar control properties to the glazing. These coatings can help maintain a comfortable temperature inside the building by reducing the amount of solar energy that enters through the glazing in the summer or of heat escaping it during the winter.

Environmental stewardship

Birds play a critical role in ecosystems and economies around the world. Between providing food, controlling pests, enriching soil and other contributions, their impact on quality of life is immense. With many bird populations in decline, it becomes even more serious to address the problem of bird-window collisions. Bird-friendly glass can also contribute to LEED® Innovation Credit (“Bird Collision Deterrence,” BD+C: New Construction. v4.1).

What AJJ Bird-Friendly Glass Solutions help counteract bird collisions

Glass embedded with ceramic frit or UV patterns is for the birds

AJJ's bird-friendly glass consists of three types of bird-safe solutions, including:

Bird-friendly ceramic fritted glass

Do you require a bird-friendly glass that’s also energy efficient? AJJ bird-friendly glass with ceramic fritted line or dot patterns silk-screened or digital printing on the (1st) surface is an effective collision deterrent and helps to reduce the transmission of light and heat. Frit patterns have the added benefit of providing attractive design details for windows.

Bird-friendly acid-etched glass

If your building project would benefit from eye-catching patterns on its exterior, Acid-Etched Patterns will give your building the distinctive look you desire. Bird-friendly acid-etched glass is designed with acid-etched lines or dot patterns on the outside (1st) surface, which is visible to birds and helps avoid collisions.

Bird-friendly UV reflective glass

The Ultraviolet Reflective Pattern is ideal for architectural projects requiring highly transparent bird-friendly glass. AJJ’s bird-friendly UV glass has colored patterns visible to birds that can help prevent bird-window collisions while being highly transparent to the human eye.

AJJ bird-friendly UV glass exceeds the effective bird collision deterrent materials standard. Bird-friendly UV glass is proven to effectively deter birds, improve energy efficiency, meet safety standards, and maintain the human visual experience with high transparency.