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Seven dead birds. Volunteers found seven dead birds in downtown Dallas before the sun peeked over downtown Dallas one recent morning.

As Dallas prepares to build a $3 billion new convention center downtown, conservation groups are calling for the project to incorporate bird-friendly glass and lighting to prevent more deaths. Though it would cost more, advocates say the decision could save thousands of birds each year and make Dallas a national leader in preventing deadly building collisions.

"It's always a shock to people," said Jake Poinsett, education manager at the Trinity River Audubon Center. "Millions of birds pass through Texas each spring and fall, and most people don't realize 80% migrate at night. They've evolved for millions of years to navigate by the night sky, and in just the last hundred years, we've created these deadly obstacles."

During spring and fall bird migrations, volunteers with Lights Out Dallas!, an educational awareness campaign focused on protecting migratory birds traveling through Dallas, canvass downtown to document and collect fatalities from collisions with buildings and to rescue stunned and injured birds.

Canvassing downtown

On Sept. 10, about 10 volunteers met at 6 a.m. in the Perot Museum parking lot. Everyone received a safety vest, and the group split into two. Their mission was to cover about 3 miles around downtown buildings with lots of glass that keep their lights on at night.

"Found one!" yelled Khadeeja Ubaid, a Lights Out, Dallas! intern. She waved her flashlight so the others could see where she was standing, right below the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center skybridge.

Poinsett took a Ziploc bag out of his black backpack, put the dead bird inside, and labeled the bag "skybridge."

The volunteers continued walking around the convention center's main entrance and found another. Their route then led them toward Dallas City Hall, where they found two more birds, one dead and one injured. They found a dead white-winged dove across the street at the main public library.

Since 2021, volunteers have documented at least 3,052 bird-building collisions across 128 downtown locations. About 924 collisions, or about 30%, occurred at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.

According to Mei Ling Liu, the community conservation director at the Texas Conservation Alliance, the skybridge accounts for nearly 60% of the dead birds found at the convention center.

Fly into glass surfaces

Birds often mistake reflections of the sky or vegetation for real habitat, cannot recognize transparent glass as a barrier when they see open space or plants on the other side, and are sometimes attracted or disoriented by artificial lights at night, all of which lead them to fly into glass surfaces unintentionally, said Kaitlyn Parkins, glass collisions program coordinator at American Bird Conservancy.

"Collisions with glass are North America's second-largest direct cause of bird mortality," Parkins said.

Birds are important because they provide essential ecosystem services such as pest control, pollination, and seed dispersal, which help maintain a healthy environment, Parkins said.

In 2017, a major incident occurred in Galveston when one of the tallest buildings left its lights on during a storm. Almost 400 birds died overnight after colliding with the building. This event underscored the dangers of light pollution for migrating birds and sparked the "lights out" movement in Texas.

Bird-friendly glass

Dallas plays a crucial role in bird migration because it is located in the middle of the Central Flyway, one of the major migration routes for birds traveling between North and South America. The fall migration runs from Aug. 15 to Nov. 30, with peak migration occurring from Sept. 5 to Oct. 29.

Texas—especially Dallas—serves as a vital stopover point where billions of birds pass through during spring and fall migrations. The region's diverse habitats provide essential places for birds to rest and refuel, Liu said.

The solution to reduce collisions is bird-friendly glass, said Ian Seamans, Dallas City Hall advocate with Environment Texas.

There are multiple types of bird-friendly glass on the market. They usually have a frit-dot pattern that alerts birds to the presence of a solid barrier while blurring reflected images.

These materials also often make buildings easier to heat and cool, reducing energy needs.

Seamans, along with conservation organizations in Dallas—including the Texas Conservation Alliance, the Dallas Zoo, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science and Trinity River Audubon Center—and hundreds of concerned citizens are asking the city of Dallas to build the new convention center with a bird-friendly design like other cities across the country have done.

Rosa Fleming, the convention center director, did not respond to a request for comment. Instead, the city's communication department pointed to a Sept. 5 memorandum that mentioned the ongoing efforts from residents' requests for a bird-friendly design.

"Staff is aware of a social media post by the Trinity River Audubon Society, which speaks to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas's history as a downtown Dallas location that lacks suitable deterrents to prevent bird injury and fatalities," reads the memo. It offers no information on the city's plans.

Ron Stelmarski, design director at Perkins & Will's Dallas office, one of the architecture firms behind the convention center renovation, strongly supports a bird-friendly convention center and said it will be part of the design, but details are still being worked out.

He views bird safety as a fundamental design principle, not just a reaction to community advocacy.

Stelmarski said bird-friendly features—like fritted glass and strategic landscaping—need to be integrated from the start to balance ecological responsibility with community and architectural needs.

He said an ecologist is working with his team to ensure the design is approached holistically. Retrofitting a building with bird-friendly glass later can be significantly more expensive if not included in the original design.

"It's not an either-or. It's both," Stelmarski said. "And it's the idea where birds, people and architecture all win."

A bird-friendly library

Dallas already has an example to point to: The Traphene Hickman Library in Cedar Hill, less than 20 miles from downtown Dallas, was built with bird-friendly glass.

Sophia Ensmann, communications and engagement manager for Cedar Hill, said bird-friendly glass was incorporated into the building from the earliest design stages.

The glass has stripes that help prevent bird collisions while allowing clear views for visitors.

This special glass was more expensive than standard glass, but it was prioritized to align with the community's environmental values, Ensmann said.

The bird-friendly glass cost $170,000 more than standard windows. The property also includes a bird blind—a special structure that allows people to watch birds without disturbing them.

In over a year, the library has had one bird collision.

A bird-friendly convention center

On Sept. 5, during a webinar moderated by Audubon Texas, Dustin Partridge, director of conservation and science with NYC Bird Alliance, spoke about the Javits Convention Center's success as a bird-friendly building.

The Javits Convention Center underwent a five-year renovation that concluded in 2014. It was the first time a major New York City building was retrofitted with bird-friendly glass. As a result, bird–building collisions at the site dropped 90%.

There was another benefit as well, Partridge said. Employees no longer had to deal with the distressing sight of birds colliding with the building.

The center's success provided a platform that helped drive policy changes in New York City, including bird-safe building laws and lights-out legislation.

Parkins with American Bird Conservancy said that bird-friendly glass can be cost-effective when incorporated from the start, especially if combined with other energy-saving features like sunshades.

Limitations

Bird-friendly glass can be more expensive than standard windows—sometimes a few dollars more per square foot. But, explained Parkins, it's often a fraction of the total building budget.

Not all areas of a building need bird-friendly glass, so careful planning can balance cost and effectiveness.

Community push

Seamans and Liu said getting the community involved and their support is crucial to push the city to adopt a bird-friendly design for the convention center.

"You may not be a birder to feel like, 'Oh, I need to save the birds,' but think of the birds providing chronological functions, like pest control and pollinators," Liu said. "I believe that will connect all the dots to urge the public to help."

Residents can email council members by filling out the form "Urge Dallas City Council to include bird-friendly design in convention center renovation," on the Audubon Texas website, an effort led through a partnership between American Bird Conservancy, Audubon Texas, Environment Texas and Texas Conservation Alliance.

During migration seasons, the campaign also asks residents and commercial buildings to turn off nonessential lighting from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m..

Liu said bird-friendly glass combined with a dark sky are just some of the measures humans can take to prevent dead birds.

The American Bird Conservancy's website lists resources for residents to take action to make their homes bird-friendly.

Some of the options are creating patterns or colorful art on the outside of the window with nontoxic tempera paint, installing standard-sized insect screens, and using stickers or decals, including suncatchers.

Those interested in volunteering with Lights Out, Dallas! can register on the campaign website to canvass downtown Dallas from September to November.

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