It is one of Emory University’s most environmentally friendly buildings, a hallmark of the institution’s efforts to “go green.” To hear John Wegner describe it, it’s also a slaughterhouse.

The soaring glass windows in Emory’s Mathematics and Science Center reflect the woodsy view, confusing hapless birds who smash into it at full speed.

The pretty reflective glass on the Mathematics and Science building at Emory University is an ‘aviary slaughterhouse, says John Wegner.’ It kills dozens of birds who confuse the reflective woodsy view with the actual forest. The school puts up netting during the migratory season.

“The building killed 60 birds in the first year,” said Wegner, Emory’s chief environmental officer. “It was the wall of death.”

And also:

The night my husband became a transvestite, crows started dying. They fell from the sky like black umbrellas, hitting the ground with a thud. A rainstorm of birds. I figured it was a virulent strain of bird flu that drifted into the clouds and killed them all just like that. There they were, flying around in circles, and bam! Sick. Dead. A virus that behaved like a shotgun pellet.

~ Debbie Ann Eis @ Night Train

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