When your last name is Bird, I suppose you can't help but look out for our feathered friends.
Sarnia council supported councillor Margaret Bird's request during Monday's virtual meeting, recommending all new buildings install bird safe glass.
"Being located near the water, and with more and more glass being used in buildings, we have a much more increased rate of bird collisions and fatalities," said Bird.
She said Toronto and Markham have already adopted special bird safe programs.
"The key to bird safe buildings is to provide birds with the visual cues that they need to alert them to an object in their path. This can be done with ultraviolet coating or patterned in such a way to break up the reflectivity of the glass, alerting the birds to its presence."
Bird said bird safe glass should be required in all new builds, despite their size.
"It's not just tall buildings, although there's more and more glass being used in those, I notice it on my patio doors and all kinds of glass around the house where they're continuously flying into it breaking their neck or getting severely injured."
Council has sent a request to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs to make bird safe glass a mandatory part of a future Ontario Building Code update.
