BirdSmart™ Bird Safe Glass

Introducing BirdSmart™ Bird Safe Glass by Vitro Architectural Glass, our first proprietary glass product designed to reduce bird collisions.

BirdSmart™ Bird Safe Glass is a first-surface laser-etched glass with a Solarban^® low-e coating on the second surface. Both BirdSmart™ glass and Solarban^® glass are manufactured at our Wichita Falls, Texas, plant, so now you can get all your American-made glass from the name you know and trust, in one fell swoop.

BirdSmart™ Bird Safe Glass is available in 6mm thickness with four dot patterns (2x2 square, 2x4 rectangle, 2x4 diamond and 2x2 diamond) with directional and non-directional orientation. It can be applied to clear, Acuity^® and Starphire^® low-iron glasses and paired with Solarban^® 65, Solarban^® 70 and Solarban^® 72 glasses on the second surface. Vitro expects to expand BirdSmart™ Bird Safe Glass options in the future.

Birds can become confused by glass in two ways: reflectivity and transparency. If birds see reflections of trees or sky in the glass, they perceive it as an open space in which to fly. By etching the exterior/first surface of the glass, its reflective quality is broken up and the illusion of open space is removed. Similarly, the etching disrupts the uniform transparency and alerts birds to the presence of the glass.

Bird-friendly building codes have already been enacted in several North American states and provinces: New York, California, Illinois, Ontario, Oregon, Minnesota, Washington D.C., Virginia, Wisconsin, Alberta, British Columbia, Maryland and Maine. Now is the time to become familiar with bird-safe glass and its applications to stay ahead of ever-changing codes and regulations.

BirdSmart™ Bird Safe Glass by Vitro is manufactured using laser etching, which is a “clean” etching process that is non-caustic and uses no harsh chemicals to apply bird-friendly visual markers, offering a greener way to prevent bird strikes.

BirdSmart™ glass has received American Bird Conservancy (ABC) tunnel testing approval to comply with existing and emerging building codes.

BirdSmart™ Bird Safe Glass by Vitro offers several advantages over similar bird-friendly glass products on the market. By combining BirdSmart™ Bird Safe Glass with Vitro’s Solarban^® family of solar control low-e glass products, you can achieve both bird-friendly etching and solar performance without impacting visible light transmittance (VLT) or solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC).

Both BirdSmart™ glass and Solarban^® glass are manufactured at Vitro’s Wichita Falls plant. This central location ensures an efficient supply chain and allows for direct shipping, which reduces transit times, speeds up delivery and contributes to the product's cost-effectiveness.

Laser-etched BirdSmart™ Bird Safe Glass is a first-surface marking designed to meet even the strictest building codes and is more effective for birds such as hummingbirds, pigeons and birds of prey that don’t see ultraviolet (UV) coatings as well.

Perfect for both small and large projects, BirdSmart™ glass is available in sizes up to Titan™ glass (130x240 inches) and can be ordered in sizes as small as one pack. BirdSmart™ glass also can be manufactured without a low-e coating.

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