As 'green' architecture advances, glass buildings pose hazard to birds

Boston is striving to become a leader in green building. But glass siding and atriums, common features of green architecture, carry an unintended side-effect: a mortal danger to birds.

An estimated 5 percent of the country's bird population--or about a billion birds--die each year by crashing into buildings they cannot see, according to Daniel Klem, an ornithologist at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania who has studied bird collisions for more than 30 years. Migratory birds, including songbirds whose populations are already on the decline, crash into glass in especially large numbers, according to a Dec. 15 boston.com report.

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