Birds don’t see windows as solid barriers. They see a clear view of what’s on the other side or an unbroken reflection of nature. This often leads to collisions with windows. Eco Windows offers a variety of certified solutions that let you have both transparent and clearly visible architectural space and façade concepts, proven to reduce bird strikes.
UV pattern
Birds can see light in the ultraviolet spectrum, unlike us humans. Bird Friendly Glass uses a unique patterned UV-enhanced coating that disrupts the reflections, providing a visible marker to birds and preventing collisions. The technologically advanced patterned coating on Bird Friendly Glass uses the industry-accepted 2×4 rule, making the glass more visible to birds while remaining aesthetically appealing on both the interior and exterior surfaces.
Bird-friendly patterns
In contrast to transparent solutions, Bird Friendly Glass – Lines and Dots products, are clearly visible to humans and animals. The coating process complements the screen printing process used to date and is based on visible, metallic markings in the form of dots or lines. The chrome markings create maximum contrast in both reflection and transmission, providing highly effective bird protection on the outer glass surface.
Bird Friendly coatings have been developed to ensure bird safety glass façades, while keeping the protective coating practically invisible to the human eye. The inspiration for this textured coating came from nature – the delicate, spider-web-like appearance is barely noticeable, yet very effective.
The filigree, spider web-like appearance Bird Friendly Spider-web Glass is barely perceptible to the human eye. It has been tested and certified by the American Bird Conservancy in Pennsylvania/USA.
You can use Bird Friendly Glass in all windows and façades, just like any conventional insulating or laminated safety glass. You can also combine it with other functions like solar or thermal control in the insulating glass without any problems. Especially in the USA, where bird-friendly façade design has been made into law in a growing number of states for quite some time now.
Certification
Bird Friendly Glass has been tested as a laminated safety glass and insulating glass in combination with different thermal insulation and solar control layers in various flight tunnel testing systems. In the tests, a significant proportion of the birds avoided all of the above glass types. Apart from this, most Bird Friendly Glass types also meet the criteria for bird-friendly glazing of the American Bird Conservancy (assigned to the “Effective” category).
We have several suppliers of bird friendly glass, all with certified test results. Glass samples are available at our main showroom in Norwalk CT.
Glass with bird-safe and solar control coatings allows architects to design without worrying about the appearance or performance of the building envelope. There are several ways to make glass more visible to birds, and the final decision is usually based on the project’s aesthetic, cost, and bird safety criteria.
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