TPO 42

The lecture and the reading passage discuss the danger of the glass used in architecture for the birds. Although the passage claims some solutions that can be used to prevent birds from flying through glass windows, the speaker refutes these ideas through several reasons, which I will describe in this report.

First, the passage points out that people can replace one-way glass with regular glass for their building. In this situation, people inside the room can see out, but birds cannot see in and will not try to fly it. The lecturer, in contrast, rejects this by claiming that replacing the one-way glass with regular glass is not a practical solution. Because the one-way glass is the same as a mirror, and reflect the pictures, but it is not transparent and acting as a mirror. If the one-way glass reflects the sky or trees, the birds cannot recognize that the pictures are not real, and they try to fly through it. So, the one-way glass just bad as the regular glass.

Furthermore, the reading passage states that painting or drawing colorful lines on regular glass can solve this problem because people still see out, and birds would see the stripes and avoid trying to flay through the glass. However, the professor argues that it is true that people can see out, but the birds see these lines as holes. Hence, they try to fly through the holes. Furthermore, if the holes become smaller, the inside of the house becomes dark. So, it is not a practical solution.

Finally, although the passage says that making a small magnetic field around the house can help the birds to recognize their ways because birds have the ability to use Earth's magnetic field for finding direction. The speaker disagrees by mentioning that birds only use the sense of Earth's magnetic field in long-distance travelling. For example, when they want to travel from a cold country to a warmer country, they use Earth's magnetic field for finding direction. But, for small distance like in travel in the city, they use eyes and light. So, it is not working for them.