While we’ve made tremendous progress through the Lights Out, Texas! initiative—a movement championed by Audubon Texas and partners where more than 20 cities and landmarks, including Dallas’s Reunion Tower, dim their lights to protect migrating birds—reducing light pollution is only half the challenge. To fully safeguard birds in flight, we must also address the threat posed by glass itself. 

We design offices, schools, and homes with massive floor-to-ceiling windows because we crave a connection to the outdoors. However, to a bird, that transparent glass is invisible, or worse, its reflection of the sky and trees looks like a clear path forward. 

Choosing to retrofit these windows is more than a maintenance project; it is an act of love. While adding dots or cords to a window might feel like a visual adjustment at first, that feeling quickly shifts. Once you realize those patterns are saving lives, the "distraction" becomes a point of pride — a badge of a community that cares.   

At Texas A&M University in College Station, a dedicated group of students turned their passion into data-driven advocacy, working toward the goal of earning their campus the distinction of retrofitted bird‑friendly glass.  Over the course of four seasons spanning roughly 60 weeks, students spent more than 120 hours patrolling the campus in the early morning hours, walking three to four miles at a time, documenting the heartbreaking reality of bird strikes. Their findings pointed to a clear "hotspot": the AgriLife Building, where stunning glass walls overlook the campus gardens.  

The students didn't just mourn the loss; they organized. Armed with a letter to the President signed by over 200 supporters, they presented their data to the administration and their persistence paid off. In the fall of 2025, the university installed floor to ceiling Feather Friendly dots on a side of the building to reduce bird collisions. A huge win.  

Texas A&M isn't alone on this flight for safety. The University of Texas Marine Science Institute has also stepped up, installing Feather Friendly solutions on their skywalk and visitor center, and Rice University has a Bird-Friendly Building Design blueprint. From the coast to the Brazos Valley, Texas institutions are proving that scientific progress and bird conservation go together.  

As birders and conservationists, we should look at large-scale glass not just as a design feature, but as an opportunity. We can bend the bird curve, but to do so we must take steps towards a different future where the view out the window is a different one, but a safer one. Whether you are a homeowner or a building manager, there are accessible solutions to make our structures part of the landscape rather than a hazard to it. The view is always better when you know the birds on the other side of the glass are safe.  

Our goal for 2026 is to see stories like these across the state so we can share and uplift actions from across our community. If you have installed bird-friendly window solutions, let us know, we’d love to share!