Project Dates

Start: 2017

The Story

Walking though a glass walkway at the University of Graz, Austria, Dominique Waddoup kept finding birds that had collided with the transparent walls. A quiet but persistent problem that was hard to ignore. Determined to do something about it, Dominique started digging into the issue. The numbers were shocking, bird-window collisions rank as the second largest human-induced threat to birds worldwide, and as glass architecture spreads into natural flight corridors, the problem keeps growing. Visible solutions already existed at the time, but they all required a trade-off: Marked or patterned glass that building owners and architects simply didn’t want. That gap is what BirdShades was built to close. Drawing on a background in animal behaviour and together with dedicated team members in biology and material science, the team developed an invisible bird protection window film. The technology is rooted in a biological fact: most bird species can see UV light, which humans cannot. What followed was years of development, prototyping and close collaboration with scientific institutions to make sure the product actually held up under rigorous testing. Not just in lab conditions, but on real buildings. Today BirdShades has successfully entered the market with proven results across several countries.

Success Factor | Hero Moment

The moment BirdShades received its first independent scientific validation was a huge milestone. Proving that the film works not just in theory, but under rigorous, peer-reviewed testing conditions was a huge success to the teams mission and vision. But the biggest reward has been the fantastic feedback from happy customers who have made their windows safe for birds and see the difference firsthand.