{"id":425401,"date":"2026-09-03T21:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/425401\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T21:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:30:14","slug":"major-texas-city-pushes-new-rules-to-stop-buildings-from-killing-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/425401\/","title":{"rendered":"Major Texas city pushes new rules to stop buildings from killing birds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Austin’s glassy skyline<\/a> might look good to people. To birds, it can be deadly.<\/p>\n

Travis Audubon<\/a> is pushing the city to become the first major Texas city<\/a> to pass a bird-friendly building ordinance aimed at preventing birds from crashing into buildings.<\/p>\n

The effort dates back to 2024, when the Austin City Council<\/a> directed city staff to explore changes to the city’s building rules. Throughout 2025, staff reviewed policies in other cities, consulted recommendations from bird conservation groups and gathered public input before developing a set of proposals.<\/p>\n

But progress toward an ordinance has since stalled, according to Travis Audubon<\/a> Program Manager Caley Zuzula, who said the city manager wants more evidence that one is needed.<\/p>\n

“In addition to collecting data on bird strikes, we created a petition<\/a> supporting a bird-friendly ordinance to show city council that Austin residents<\/a> care about birds,” Zuzula told Chron.<\/p>\n

The group hopes to collect 1,000 signatures from Austin residents by the end of the year,\u00a0Zuzula said.<\/p>\n

\"Austin<\/p>\n

Austin bird advocates want new building rules to reduce bird collisions. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

An estimated 1 billion birds die from building collisions in the U.S. each year. Glass poses a particular danger because birds can mistake reflections of trees or sky for somewhere to fly. Artificial lights can also attract and disorient birds migrating at night.<\/p>\n

The threat is especially relevant in Texas, where an estimated 1 billion to 2 billion birds pass through during spring and fall migration. More than 400 bird species can be spotted in Austin.<\/p>\n

Travis Audubon doesn’t have a comprehensive estimate for how many birds die from building collisions in Austin each year.<\/p>\n

“Fortunately, we haven’t had any significant mass bird collisions in Austin, but, like with many cities, we do see conditions that set birds up for danger from building collisions, such as highly reflective glass and unnecessary nighttime lighting,” Zuzula said.<\/p>\n

Texas has seen what those conditions can do. In 2017, nearly 400 migratory birds representing more than 20 species died after striking a brightly lit Galveston skyscraper<\/a> in a single night. The disaster helped spur what became the statewide Lights Out, Texas!<\/a> initiative.<\/p>\n

\"Nearly<\/p>\n

Nearly 400 migratory birds died after striking a Galveston skyscraper in May 2017. (Josh Henderson\/Galveston Animal )<\/p>\n

Austin passed its own Lights Out resolution in 2021, calling for city buildings to follow bird-safe lighting practices during migration.\u00a0Zuzula said that’s not enough because the resolution doesn’t extend to all buildings and residences.<\/p>\n

Several U.S. cities, including New York City and San Francisco, have adopted bird-friendly building standards. Austin could follow suit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

City staff has recommended requiring new commercial and multifamily buildings larger than 10,000 square feet to meet bird-safe standards on building surfaces up to 100 feet high. Strategies can include patterned or treated glass, screens and exterior shading, along with reducing unnecessary nighttime lighting.<\/p>\n

For now, Travis Audubon is trying to collect the Austin-specific evidence city officials are seeking.<\/p>\n

Its\u00a0Austin Bird Building Collisions<\/a> project on\u00a0iNaturalist tracks reported collisions across the region. At least 40 observations have been recorded in Austin so far this year, including some near glass buildings at the University of Texas<\/a> and downtown.<\/p>\n

The group is asking residents to report bird collisions they encounter and sign its petition supporting the proposed ordinance.<\/p>\n

More Parks & Wildlife<\/p>\n

Crime<\/a> | Texas man sentenced for shooting, killing bald eagle in Porter<\/a>
Nasty<\/a> | Houston Interactive Aquarium USDA violations include euthanized animal<\/a>
New Beginnings<\/a>\u00a0| Houston Audubon changes name to Birds Houston after 57 years<\/a>
Water<\/a> | Texas beaches see a surge of stranded baby sea turtles<\/a><\/p>\n

For the latest and best from Chron,\u00a0sign up for our daily newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally published at Major Texas city pushes new rules to stop buildings from killing birds<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austin’s glassy skyline might look good to people. To birds, it can be deadly. Travis Audubon is pushing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1501,7460,147894,147892,147896,147895,56879,27,9192,29,28,132278,147893],"class_list":["post-425401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-austin-city-council","tag-austin-residents","tag-bird-collisions","tag-birds-migrating","tag-building-collisions","tag-building-standards","tag-city-staff","tag-texas","tag-texas-city","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-travis-audubon","tag-travis-audubon-program-manager-caley-zuzula"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}