Bird testing facilities
With the adoption of bird-friendly glazing in its infancy, testing and experiment facilities are also evolving. Although interest in developing more test sites is growing, manufacturers in North America currently only have limited options to test their products. Since live birds are used in the process, the process is highly specialized and requires specially trained experts to conduct testing while ensuring bird safety. To meet new building requirements for sustainability and eco-friendly products, manufacturers have teamed up with ornithologists, who study and understand how birds live and adapt to their surroundings.
Canada uses a different, prescriptive approach for bird safety. The CSA Group (CSA) created the standard, A460:19, Bird-friendly building design, to establish best practices for industry professionals and government agencies to use to deter bird collisions. This standard covers bird-friendly building designs in new construction and existing buildings and is intended to reduce bird collisions with buildings. It also provides design requirements for glazing, building-integrated structures, and overall building and site design. As it is a prescriptive document, it is based on knowledge and testing available at the time of writing. With the rapid evolution of techniques to create highly effective glazing products, the standard is subject to change.
In the U.S., the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) has two tunnel test sites. The Powdermill Avian Research Center (PARC) in Rector, Pennsylvania, is part of the Carnegie Museum and is located on the 891-ha (2200-acre), Powdermill Nature Reserve. Earlier this year, the ABC joined forces with Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, to double its capacity to test and rate glass and other materials and their ability to deter bird collisions.2 The move is already helping in meeting the high demand for testing from glass manufacturers, while allowing the science and knowledge around bird-friendly glazing to develop and evolve. ABC also collaborates with its European counterpart, Biologische Station Hohenau-Ringelsdorf in Austria.
A third U.S.-based option for testing is at the Acopian Center for Ornithology at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Field testing, which is a different methodology than tunnel testing, is conducted here. The Center also provides hands-on training in natural science through specialized classes and collection-based research opportunities for the college’s biology students.
Also in the U.S., the National Glass Association (NGA) has developed a “Best Practices for Bird-Friendly Glazing Design Guide,” which offers prescriptive recommendations to implement bird-friendly glazing constructions. The document reflects the current developments and guidance available within the glazing and bird conservancy industries. The design guide is also noted as a point of reference for all architectural projects.3
How testing works
Currently the two broadly accepted approaches are tunnel and field testing. While each has its advantages and disadvantages, both methods are used to advance the quality and efficacy of bird-friendly glazing systems.
Tunnel testing
In 2004, the Biologische Station Hohenau-Ringelsdorf debuted an outdoor protocol to compare effectiveness of different patterns on glass for preventing bird collisions. The Hohenau-Ringelsdorf tunnel is a binomial choice protocol. Birds, protected by a net, have the option to “exit” the tunnel by flying either towards a test sample or unmarked control glass, seen at the far end of a dark, enclosed space. The tunnel was constructed (and is still operating) at Hohenau, a bird banding station, where netting migratory birds makes it possible to test large numbers of samples in a relatively short period.
The ABC adopted a similar protocol; PARC is a permanent banding station led by scientist, Dr. Christine Shepard. In a typical year, more than 11,000 birds of 100 species are netted, banded, measured, visually sexed, and weighed. Most are migratory birds netted during spring and fall migrations. In a relatively short period, this provides large sample sizes of species which are typically victims of collisions.
