LIVING the green life can get complicated — even when we’re picking out windowpanes.

Glass windows let in lots of natural light, of course, thus saving electricity. But birds often don’t sense the glass and may fly headlong into it.

To avoid those fatal strikes, the Wildlife Conservation Society decided to try a new kind of glass intended to be more visible to birds. It is made with a patterned coating that reflects ultraviolet light. Birds can see this pattern, but it is faint or imperceptible to people.

The society installed the protective glass last year in a conference room of its Center for Global Conservation at the Bronx Zoo. “I don’t know of any bird strikes in this area of the building,” said Sylvia Smith, a senior partner at FXFowle in Manhattan, the architecture firm that designed the building.

The glass, called Ornilux, is made by Arnold Glas of Remshalden, Germany. It typically costs at least 50 percent more than regular glass, said Alexander von Mezynski, Arnold’s sales director.