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A move by the U.S. Green Building Council may lead more architects to consult the Audubon Society of Portland, a group dedicated to improving bird safety.

The USGBC is adding a bird-safety credit to its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, and some observers contend this will influence architects’ building designs.

According to some estimates, millions of bird deaths each year are caused by collisions with buildings. The Audubon Society’s Portland chapter has worked to make buildings safer for the 209 bird species that fly through the city as part of the Pacific Flyway north-south migration route, and the research has aided many local architects already.

Erik Matthews, executive director of Portland-based , recently was called upon to draw up his first intentionally bird-friendly design for a new Turtle Island Foods facility in Hood River. To accommodate his client, who is an Audubon Society member, Matthews worked with Mary Coolidge, assistant conservation director of the Portland chapter, to discuss design possibilities.

The Audubon Society of Portland in 2009 began an effort to understand the magnitude of the region’s window-strike problem by conducting surveys of certain downtown sites. Twenty-two buildings now participate in the voluntary 鈥溾�� program, which asks tenants and building users to report dead bird sightings and window strikes.

鈥淚f you’re not looking (for window-struck birds), then you won’t see the evidence,鈥� Coolidge said. 鈥淭hey’ll get stuck in planters or picked up by crows and house cats, swept up by maintenance crews, and just go missing.鈥�

Audubon Society members routinely check the BirdSafe sites, collecting between 50 and 70 dead birds each season. Local residents each year bring an additional 200-300 injured or dead birds to the Audubon Wildlife Care Center because of window strikes, according to Coolidge, who is working with the city of Portland to draft bird-friendly building guidelines for architects and developers.

Overnight lighting on city buildings is one threat to a safe migration season. Lights lure birds into urban areas after dark, and risk hitting buildings during daytime.

Fox Tower was the first to participate in Portland’s 鈥淟ights Out鈥� program, a national Audubon Society campaign that encourages building operators to shut off night-lighting during migration season. The Congress Center, the Portland Building, and a few others also are in the process of enrolling, according to Coolidge.

The major design trend that threatens bird safety is an increased use of glass. Modern, glass-walled buildings are dangerous for birds, but so are elements such as windows that meet at the corner of a building, windowed sky-bridges and glass courtyards.

鈥淭hey think they can continue flying because they see the reflection of tree and sky, or the reflection of an 鈥榰rban canyon,’ which is the passageway between two adjacent buildings,鈥� Coolidge said.

The main safety strategy is to use window glass that has been treated with opaque or translucent films, glazes or decals.

Some green building advocates are already aware of bird-safety issues, including the architects of the high-profile Oregon Sustainability Center. The design team consulted with the Audubon Society of Portland and is considering adding frit or screening that will reduce glass transparency on the ground floor as well as on corners, according to Kyle Andersen, a principal at

Coolidge gave bird-safety presentations to the American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment a few weeks ago, and will soon do the same for in Portland.

Working on the Turtle Island Foods project inspired Matthews, whose work at Surround Architecture often focuses on sustainability, to think about ways to offset the disruptions that buildings cause for not only birds, but other animals as well.

鈥淲hen we were working on the design (for the Hood River facility), we thought it would be great if the building had a green roof that allowed deer to come up to nibble on the roof,鈥� Matthews said. 鈥淏ut it’s a romantic notion. All designers should be cognizant of their work’s impact, but that level of things will take some time to work its way into urban settings.鈥�