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Maine releases new guidelines for designing bird-safe public buildings

Bird-friendly windows at MEMIC in Portland.
Courtesy Maine Audubon
Bird-friendly windows at MEMIC in Portland.

An estimated 50,000 birds die from colliding with glass windows each year in Maine's biggest city according to Maine Audubon. On Tuesday, the state released new voluntary guidelines on how to design publicly-funded buildings that are more bird-friendly.

The ten guidelines were developed by local architects, builders and experts who have studied this issue, like Maine Audubon's Nick Lund.

He said many of the bird-safe design principles and strategies — such as minimizing the use of reflective glass — are pretty intuitive. Others, such as focusing collision-prevention efforts on the lower floors, are not.

"The vast majority of collisions occur down low to the ground, not high up in the sky where birds would be migrating," Lund said.

Another really important one is you can't just draw the blinds.

"Solutions need to appear on the outside surface of the glass," Lund said.

These new guidelines are the product of a law passed in 2023, LD 670, making Maine one of just four states to enact legislation to protect birds from window collisions.