Ornithologists point out that every year millions of birds fly into windows in North America. Windows are near the top of the list of unnatural causes of bird fatalities, along with wires/towers, backyard feeders, domestic cats, lights, and lead.
In this month's Wilson Bulletin, biologist Daniel Klein,jr of Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, and colleagues, reports that he's established the effectiveness of a method to prevent those dusty body prints on your picture windows. Basically, we could build windows that tilt toward the ground, thus reflecting earth, not sky. After a four month experiment with windows set at a forest edge, and with angles from zero to 40 degrees, they recorded 60% of their hits on the vertical windows, 25% on the 20 degree-angle windows, and 15% on the 40 degree-angle windows. Changing existing windows would not be easy, but this tilt is an old solution for reducing energy costs and reflective glare. Sandy Isenstadt of Yale Univ. School of Architecture commented that some architects would welcome the practical justification for an aesthetic style.
Posted by The Naturalist at September 21, 2004 12:25 AM