bird-safe glass

Middleton and Madison move toward building cities safer for birds

Middleton, WI is the newest municipality in the country to adopt a bird-safe glass ordinance as of February 20, 2024. The ordinance, which matches the one implemented in Madison in 2020, requires buildings over 10,000 square feet to use bird-safe design or bird-safe glass.

Photo by Steve Kersting FCC

Action Alert: Support Middleton's bird-safe glass ordinance!

Middleton, WI residents have an important, time-sensitive opportunity to support the proposed Bird-safe Glass Ordinance on or before the February 20, 2024 public hearing. Please submit comments using the information below by 1:00pm CT on February 20, 2024, and if you’re able, join the meeting to voice your support for bird-safe glass and responsible development!

Photo by Kelly Colgan Azar

It's Official: Madison's Bird-safe Glass Ordinance is in the Clear

Bird conservation groups are celebrating the survival of Madison, Wisconsin’s bird-friendly building ordinance after years of legal challenges from developers. Following the ruling, the City will continue to require bird-friendly building designs that prevent window collisions. American Bird Conservancy (ABC), Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance (formerly Madison Audubon), and Wisconsin Society for Ornithology are encouraging municipalities to move ahead with their own efforts to assure building designs protect wild birds from colliding with windows.

Photo by Larry Master, www.masterimages.org

Growing interest in gardening for birds at 2024 Wisconsin Garden Expo

Wisconsin bird lovers can learn how to attract and feed our feathered friends and keep them safe around their home at the PBS Wisconsin Garden and Landscape Expo Feb. 9-11 at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison.

Avian experts from across the state will offer tips on everything from gardening for hummingbirds and songbirds, to attracting Eastern Bluebirds and Purple Martins with nest boxes and martin houses, respectively, to easy home solutions to prevent birds from colliding with windows.

A Big Win for Birds

I vividly remember two consecutive Saturdays mornings at Madison's Downtown Farmers' Market when Sally and I found dead warblers at the base of the one the big new buildings on the Square. They had flown into the building's windows. Such lovely birds and what a sad end to such beauty and vitality.

A warbler died after colliding with a window in Madison. Photo by Corliss Karasov

Such deaths are happening all over Madison and the nation. Probably most folks who saw the dead birds on the Square or elsewhere assumed these were sad but inevitable losses. Madison Audubon’s executive direcotr, Matt Reetz, and communications and outreach director, Brenna Marsicek, and other bird loving activists thought differently. They devoted themselves to finding solutions.

This effort advanced on several fronts: documenting the extent of the bird deaths and injuries in Madison, researching solutions, and implementing those solutions locally. Matt and Brenna, the national researchers and activists, and local and national Audubon Board Members worked on these issues. In Madison, more importantly, Brenna recruited incredibly dedicated volunteers, the Bird Collision Corps, to find the spots where the deaths were occurring, collect the dead birds as documentation, and transport injured birds to care and rehabilitation.

Research showed cost-effective solutions existed. Window designs and treatments greatly reduce the number of bird collisions.

Locally, some building owners took those steps—UW Madison has a couple of good examples. A more comprehensive step was needed, a local ordinance to ensure that big new buildings were as bird safe as possible. Brenna's and Matt's determination to have a volunteer, grassroots base to bird saving paid off. Those folks persuaded Madison's City Council and Mayor to pass that ordinance. That legislation was another example of how Madison Audubon’s work blended local and national efforts. We received a lot of great legal advice and wording to create as sound an ordinance as possible.

In what I still marvel at as an awful step, a group of Madison developers enlisted a conservative legal entity to sue to stop the ordinance (I actually wonder who enlisted whom). The City defended the suit ably and again some of our bird-loving legal allies had helpful advice.

Two days ago, the judge ruled to protect our birds. The ordinance stands.

Based on what I've been able to read, the judge's decision is right. The challenge claimed that the Legislature had prevented cities from adding further requirements to building codes. The judge made the right distinction. Building codes are specific sets of ordinances setting requirements so that buildings are fundamentally safe for human use. Stuff to make sure, for example, that buildings don't collapse.. But other ordinances are not in building codes and focus on other issues such as design. The judge ruled, correctly in my opinion, that ordinances concerning the design of windows to protect birds are not in the building codes subject to the legislative preemption.

Dots added to windows can drastically reduce window collisions. Photo by Aaron Williams

The developers might appeal. Just my opinion but I think they should not. The judge got this right. Secondly, the developers said this would add too much expense to new buildings. You just have to drive around town, dodging dump trucks, cranes (the equipment, not the birds), and other construction gear to see that developers and builders are flourishing in Madison these days. The notion that using one of several affordable steps to make sure the windows don't kill birds will hamper the development and construction business is laughable. Developers should recognize they have a responsibility to take reasonable, affordable steps to protect our environment and that includes our birds. Finally, developers and builders might want to consider that this lawsuit made them look like, to speak bluntly, jerks.

I'll probably have one dispute with Madison Audubon about this blog. Matt and Brenna are exceedingly modest folks who might think this blog praises them too highly. I'll try to maintain their recognition. One purpose of this blog is to let you know what Madison Audubon does. In this case, you need to know how our staff protected our birds quickly, decisively, and effectively.

Written by Topf Wells, Madison Audubon advocacy committee chair

Cover photo by Monica Hall