Reflections off this new, arachnid-inspired glass are pretty much invisible to humans, but our feathered friends can spot it with no problem and avoid windows coated in the stuff. The coating, a product of German company Arnold Glas, is called Mikado, the German name for Pick-Up Sticks, because it kind of looks like a bunch of breadsticks flattened and strewn over a window. The pattern is based on webs made by Orb Weaver spiders, which use a similar UV coating so that birds don’t fly into and wreck all their webs.
The BBC reports that the company tested the glass in a tunnel on a U.S. nature preserve:
Birds were encouraged to fly to the end of the facility which was covered with two types of glass – one containing the Mikado coating, the other without. A net was used and the firm says no birds were injured.
Birds at the nature preserve were heard chirping: “Hey, mom! Look at me – I’m flyi….. OOF!” Fun fact: when birds get a knock on the noggin’, the cartoon figures that circle their head are human babies. Ask any bird, it’s true.
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