There's a lot more wrong with this picture than you've said in your article - this house is also very 'bird unfriendly.' In the first photograph of the house facade, you can see the reflection of sky and surrounding vegetation in the windows. To a bird, the reflection between the solid panels of this facade looks like an easy route to the other side of the house, a safe flyway. In fact, this window design is a death trap for birds. Every year in Canada, 25 million birds needlessly die from window collisions at buildings like this one (https://www.ace-eco.org/vol8/iss2/art6/), and this is not a 'tall building problem' -- low-rise buildings and residential houses cause over 90% of these building-related mortalities (https://flap.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Synergies-and-Tradeoffs.pdf).
During spring and fall migrations in particular, this type of design is particularly lethal but few realize the seriousness of the problem because we rarely find birds after a collision. Predators like hawks and outdoor cats eat most of the dead and injured birds in early dawn hours before people would find them.
Google the "Fatal Light Awareness Program" (FLAP) for research about bird window collisions and instruction on how to make your home bird friendly. You'll learn how windows around doorways are one of the deadliest designs -- the path leading to a doorway surrounded by reflective glass is basically a bird collision runway.
So, billions of birds die annually around the world from two easily preventable things that humans keep doing: 1) letting their domestic cats outside, and 2) creating deadly buildings with highly reflective surfaces that lure innocent birds to their death.
It's healthier for both cats and birds to keep our kitties indoors. I'm a cat person and it is much safer for a cat indoors where they are fed and well cared for without the risk of vehicle collisions, poisoning by rat bait, kidnapping, unwanted pregnancies, abuse by strangers or contracting an illness from eating a sick bird (as one of my cats did, the vet bills were expensive!). It just makes sense to keep cats indoors.
We can also use very inexpensive measures to protect birds from hitting windows: both FLAP and Bird Friendly Cities (BFC) (if you're lucky to live in one) have all the information you need online, to make your home bird friendly. In most cases it only takes drawing a pattern of small dots on the outside of the windows that birds collide with. Even leaving your windows dirty during the spring and fall migration times helps -- birds are more able to see a dirty glass surface in time to avoid a collision, rather than be fooled by the fake flyway on a shiny window.
This isn't too much to ask. It would keep our beloved pet cats safer and also help the world's seriously declining bird population recover. BirdLife's State of the World's Birds 2022 report summarized that "nearly half of the world's birds are in decline", and that amount has risen quickly from a 40% decline determined only four years ago (https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/birds-declines-1.6610220). Our birds are in serious trouble so we clearly owe them this small effort.
Everyone can afford, and I would hope care enough, to do these two very simple things to save bird's lives -- make buildings bird friendly and keep cats indoors.
Please tell the owner of this house about the inexpensive bird friendly measures they can take.
This is why I subscribe to your Substack! I am not in a position to do any remodeling or new building but information about how I can work with what I have, in this case, windows is valuable to me.
Just before reading Lloyd's post, I discovered https://darksky.org/ It seems to me that many of these 'glass houses' should be considering the visibility of the sky and the life of night-migrating birds and other wildlife as well. We have so much to 'learn' (relearn? unlearn?) about caring for our planet and so little time left to do it!
Ditto to what SusanA wrote. We have the original single-hung wooden windows on our 1926 home plus wooden storm windows. What to do? For better or worse, these have lasted almost 100 years. Will modern windows last as long. Ours do leak in the winter...
In my post above, regarding Indows, we tried to seal the vinyl sliders. I caulked around the outer edges, cutting some infiltration, and replaced as much as possible of the polypropylene 'fur' which 'sealed' the moving parts. The result - we went for Indows. Nothing useful would have been achieved by replacing the double-glazing itself, which had failed to single-pane values and showed condensation in winter. Incidental benefit: The Indows have substantially reduced condensation in the old panes.
In 2021, we too installed Indows on all 21 panes required in our Calgary, AB, condominium apartment, to improve the insulation and effectiveness of 1979-vintage vinyl framed (technically!) double-glazed sliders. We ostensibly own the windows, but replacing them on the 10th. floor would have been financially prohibitive and technically difficult. We put Indows on the 2000-vintage California-styled (uninsulated!) steel framed double glazed enclosures over the former balcony, supposedly creating a sunroom. Winter comfort is tangibly enhanced, noise is substantially reduced year-round, heating cost may be reduced (we don't have separate billing for hot water radiators). We don't have air conditioning, so the Indows in front of the sliders are removed for ventilation in summer; otherwise, the roof-top make-up air unit forces cold air into the apartment all the time. If only 'they' would install a HRV on all the exhaust ducts to pre-heat the cold winter air going to the make-up air unit....
There's a lot more wrong with this picture than you've said in your article - this house is also very 'bird unfriendly.' In the first photograph of the house facade, you can see the reflection of sky and surrounding vegetation in the windows. To a bird, the reflection between the solid panels of this facade looks like an easy route to the other side of the house, a safe flyway. In fact, this window design is a death trap for birds. Every year in Canada, 25 million birds needlessly die from window collisions at buildings like this one (https://www.ace-eco.org/vol8/iss2/art6/), and this is not a 'tall building problem' -- low-rise buildings and residential houses cause over 90% of these building-related mortalities (https://flap.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Synergies-and-Tradeoffs.pdf).
During spring and fall migrations in particular, this type of design is particularly lethal but few realize the seriousness of the problem because we rarely find birds after a collision. Predators like hawks and outdoor cats eat most of the dead and injured birds in early dawn hours before people would find them.
Google the "Fatal Light Awareness Program" (FLAP) for research about bird window collisions and instruction on how to make your home bird friendly. You'll learn how windows around doorways are one of the deadliest designs -- the path leading to a doorway surrounded by reflective glass is basically a bird collision runway.
So, billions of birds die annually around the world from two easily preventable things that humans keep doing: 1) letting their domestic cats outside, and 2) creating deadly buildings with highly reflective surfaces that lure innocent birds to their death.
It's healthier for both cats and birds to keep our kitties indoors. I'm a cat person and it is much safer for a cat indoors where they are fed and well cared for without the risk of vehicle collisions, poisoning by rat bait, kidnapping, unwanted pregnancies, abuse by strangers or contracting an illness from eating a sick bird (as one of my cats did, the vet bills were expensive!). It just makes sense to keep cats indoors.
We can also use very inexpensive measures to protect birds from hitting windows: both FLAP and Bird Friendly Cities (BFC) (if you're lucky to live in one) have all the information you need online, to make your home bird friendly. In most cases it only takes drawing a pattern of small dots on the outside of the windows that birds collide with. Even leaving your windows dirty during the spring and fall migration times helps -- birds are more able to see a dirty glass surface in time to avoid a collision, rather than be fooled by the fake flyway on a shiny window.
This isn't too much to ask. It would keep our beloved pet cats safer and also help the world's seriously declining bird population recover. BirdLife's State of the World's Birds 2022 report summarized that "nearly half of the world's birds are in decline", and that amount has risen quickly from a 40% decline determined only four years ago (https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/birds-declines-1.6610220). Our birds are in serious trouble so we clearly owe them this small effort.
Everyone can afford, and I would hope care enough, to do these two very simple things to save bird's lives -- make buildings bird friendly and keep cats indoors.
Please tell the owner of this house about the inexpensive bird friendly measures they can take.
Thank you for your thoughtful article.
This is why I subscribe to your Substack! I am not in a position to do any remodeling or new building but information about how I can work with what I have, in this case, windows is valuable to me.
Just before reading Lloyd's post, I discovered https://darksky.org/ It seems to me that many of these 'glass houses' should be considering the visibility of the sky and the life of night-migrating birds and other wildlife as well. We have so much to 'learn' (relearn? unlearn?) about caring for our planet and so little time left to do it!
I was so surprised when this went up in my city recently- https://resource.rentcafe.com/image/upload/q_auto,f_auto,c_limit,w_2560/s3/2/15907/45-web-or-mls-045.jpg Interesting is that it is the first total precast project of its kind in the U.S., but: check out that wrap around glazing! Every time I drive by it looks sweltering and is dripping condensation.
Ditto to what SusanA wrote. We have the original single-hung wooden windows on our 1926 home plus wooden storm windows. What to do? For better or worse, these have lasted almost 100 years. Will modern windows last as long. Ours do leak in the winter...
I have written a lot about window repair and have inserts on my 100 year old windows. https://www.treehugger.com/save-your-windows-and-your-money-indow-window-inserts-4858724
here is a controversial one making your point that old windows will last and are fixable https://www.treehugger.com/new-study-shows-restored-year-old-windows-are-effective-brand-new-replacements-4856655
In my post above, regarding Indows, we tried to seal the vinyl sliders. I caulked around the outer edges, cutting some infiltration, and replaced as much as possible of the polypropylene 'fur' which 'sealed' the moving parts. The result - we went for Indows. Nothing useful would have been achieved by replacing the double-glazing itself, which had failed to single-pane values and showed condensation in winter. Incidental benefit: The Indows have substantially reduced condensation in the old panes.
In 2021, we too installed Indows on all 21 panes required in our Calgary, AB, condominium apartment, to improve the insulation and effectiveness of 1979-vintage vinyl framed (technically!) double-glazed sliders. We ostensibly own the windows, but replacing them on the 10th. floor would have been financially prohibitive and technically difficult. We put Indows on the 2000-vintage California-styled (uninsulated!) steel framed double glazed enclosures over the former balcony, supposedly creating a sunroom. Winter comfort is tangibly enhanced, noise is substantially reduced year-round, heating cost may be reduced (we don't have separate billing for hot water radiators). We don't have air conditioning, so the Indows in front of the sliders are removed for ventilation in summer; otherwise, the roof-top make-up air unit forces cold air into the apartment all the time. If only 'they' would install a HRV on all the exhaust ducts to pre-heat the cold winter air going to the make-up air unit....