A few weeks ago, we hosted FLAP Canada’s annual bird layout at our headquarters with FLAP Canada. Nearly 3,000 birds were displayed, all collected after collisions with glass.
It was a sobering sight to see 3,000 collision victims laid out together at FLAP's layout
After 20 years of working on this issue, seeing many birds in one place remains very difficult, despite how many times we’ve witnessed this sight. It also remains the sole reason for this company’s existence.
What Has Changed
While the tragedy of this easily avoidable biodiversity can still cause a sense of gloom, there’s now more awareness. Most people in North America at least know the issue exists, and increasingly, the knowledge is spreading to other parts of the world.
Guidelines are clearer than they used to be. There is more research and more demand for bird-safe solutions.
But knowing about the problem and solving it are still two different things.
Over the last twenty years, one thing has become very clear to us: products in this space may look similar, yet their effectiveness can vary widely. That is why Feather Friendly has remained focused on proven applications, tested patterns, and solutions that hold up on real buildings.
What Still Matters
Feather Friendly started in 2006 with a narrow focus – figure out what actually reduces bird–glass collisions and make it usable.
At the time, there wasn’t much to work with beyond research. There were no widely adopted standards, and very few products that had been tested in real-world conditions.
So, the work was straightforward. Test different approaches. See what holds up. Apply it to buildings and see if it works outside of controlled settings.
That approach hasn’t changed.
A Solution for Every Project Need
From the beginning, Feather Friendly has been clear about one thing: effective bird collision mitigation belongs on the exterior surface of glass.
That has and will never change.
Feather Friendly's flagship bird-glass collision mitigation solutions
What has changed over the last twenty years is the vast range of solutions we can offer. We started with visual markers because they were proven, practical, and effective. As the field developed, so did our offering.
Today, that includes our own Feather Friendly visual marker products, Bird Divert Clear UV markers, and the WingSafe suite of solutions by Solar Gard Saint-Gobain (including WingSafe Black Dot, WingSafe White Dot and Solar 80 Black Dot), the strongest full-film solution in its category.
We're proud to now offer the entire WingSafe suite of bird safety solutions
That expansion came not from chasing every product category on the market, but from choosing solutions that had been properly tested and that met the standard we believe this work demands.
The result is a repertoire of exterior-applied options for different project needs, all grounded in the same principle: if a solution is going on glass, it has to do the job properly.
When Design Became Part of the Conversation
Over the years, we heard a version of the same concern again and again: the solution works, but how will it look?
That is part of what pushed us to expand beyond standard patterns and into more customizable options, including the Artist Series.
Bird-safe designs by artist extraordinaire Iris Häussler
The Artist Series gave us a way to respond to design concerns without backing away from what makes a product effective. The spacing still matters. The application still matters. The product still does its job.
It also gave us a way to support artists like Iris Häussler, who are already using their work to draw attention to biodiversity loss and other environmental pressures. This is one way we can support that community while bringing bird-safe design into more spaces in a way that feels considered and specific to the project.
Projects That Set the Standard
Some projects changed the visibility of this issue. Others proved what effective mitigation can do at full scale. A few did both.
McCormick Place in Chicago is one of the best examples. Long known as a collision hotspot, it became one of the most closely watched bird-safe retrofit projects in North America. After Feather Friendly Large-format Pro markers were installed across 120,000 square feet of glass, bird collisions were reduced by over 95 percent. During fall migration, the difference was dramatic: 1,280 deaths at Lakeside Center in 2023 fell to 18 in 2024.
Another example is our Royal Bank Plaza project. It showed that bird-safe retrofit work belongs on some of the most prominent commercial buildings in our cities. In Toronto, the retrofit at Royal Bank Plaza has made that visible on the skyline itself, with 94 percent of the façade up to 16 metres now treated.
Left to right: RBC Plaza, Liberty Bell, Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, McCormick Place
Bird Divert Clear UV projects have helped demonstrate that there is more than one effective path to bird-safe glass. At the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Bird Divert Clear UV was selected to help reduce collisions while preserving the building's appearance, and monitoring showed a 79% reduction in collisions. More recently, the Liberty Bell Center adopted Bird Divert Clear UV as part of its bird-safe retrofit efforts.
Together, these projects demonstrate the breadth of solutions now available and reinforce what we have learned repeatedly over the last 20 years: bird collision mitigation works when proven solutions are applied properly.
A Wider Network
As our work reached more regions, one thing became clear – this kind of change happens through people.
That is where our Strategic Avian Conservation Partners come in. They work in their own regions, building relationships with architects, developers, governments, and conservation groups, and helping turn interest into actual projects.
Our Strategic Avian Conservation Partners are saving birds worldwide
A strong example is Faraaz Abdool in Trinidad and Tobago. He is not there to simply represent a product. He brings local knowledge, credibility, and a real understanding of how bird-safe design can take shape in that part of the world.
This work cannot be driven from one office alone. It depends on people who know the local context and can move the conversation forward in a way that makes sense there.
What’s Next
Two decades in, bird-safe design is still far from standard practice.
New buildings continue to go up with glass that poses a serious risk to birds. In other cases, measures are added, but not always in ways that meet proven standards or meaningfully reduce collisions.
That is why this work remains urgent.
The goal has never changed: to help make buildings safer for birds through solutions that are tested, effective, and applied in ways that actually work.
The April layout was a stark reminder of what is still at stake, but also of how much is possible when awareness leads to action.
