NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The glass buildings that have become popular in downtown Nashville create deadly roadblocks for birds.
According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, about one billion birds collide with glass in the U.S. every year and many of these collisions are deadly.
In the latest Metro Nashville's Downtown Code Design Review Committee draft guidelines, the group suggests developers use "bird-friendly glazing when possible."
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Bird Safe Nashville co-founder, Stacy Elliott, said she has been hoping that Nashville would make this change for years.
"[Birds] usually migrate at night and they come down into our cities because our cities have so much light," Elliott explained. "And they don't find the resources they need to continue on their journey...so when they leave they are hitting windows because they reflect the sky, the vegetation."
She said these special glass glazes can signal to birds they can't pass through the glass.
Clik here to view.
Elliott said birds typically fly into a low-lying glass window on the first four stories of a building, so the glaze isn't necessary on every window pane.
However, she said every bird saved not only helps prevent extinction but helps keep Nashville's habitats intact.
"When birds thrive that means insect life is thriving, that means vegetation is thriving, so that means we are thriving," she said.
