Nearly 1,000 songbirds perished during the night after crashing into the McCormick Place Lakeside Center 's windows.
David Willard has been checking the grounds of Chicago’s lakefront exhibition centre for dead birds for 40 years. On Thursday morning he found something horrible: Hundreds of dead songbirds, so thick they looked like a carpet.
Window strikes are an issue in almost every major U.S. city. Birds don’t see clear or reflective glass and don’t understand it’s a lethal barrier. When they see plants or bushes through windows or reflected in them, they head for them, killing themselves in the process.Thanks for signing up!The next issue of Afternoon Headlines will soon be in your inbox.Birds that migrate at night, like sparrows and warblers, rely on the stars to navigate.
Small songbirds feed during the day and migrate at night to avoid air turbulence and predators. They’ve been waiting for northerly winds to give them a boost south, Temple said, but September saw unusually warm southern winds that kept birds in a holding pattern here. On Wednesday evening a front swept south, providing a tailwind, and thousands of birds took to the skies.
Window strikes and fatal light attraction are easily preventable, said Anna Pidgeon, an avian ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Building managers can simply dim their lights, she said, and architects can design windows with markings in the glass that birds can easily recognize. People can add screens, paint their windows or apply decals to the glass as well.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Nearly 1,000 migrating birds killed after crashing into McCormick PlaceExperts said the glass windows at McCormick Place can confuse the birds, who oftentimes see skylines or trees reflected in them, causing them to collide with the glass.
Read more »
Nearly 1,000 migrating songbirds perish after crashing into windows at Chicago exhibition hallAlmost 1,000 migrating songbirds have perished after smashing into windows at an exhibition center on Chicago's lakefront. According to officials at the Chicago Field Museum, 964 birds were found dead Thursday at the McCormick Place Lakeside Center. David Willard, the museum's collections manager emeritus, says the most dead birds anyone has found at one time at the center in the last 40 years was around 265. Experts say conditions were optimal for songbirds to launch their annual fall nocturnal migration to Central America on Wednesday evening. Pre-dawn rain pushed them down into the city, where they became confused by the center's lights.
Read more »
Nearly 1,000 migrating songbirds perish after crashing into windows at Chicago exhibition hallAlmost 1,000 migrating songbirds have perished after smashing into windows at an exhibition center on Chicago's lakefront
Read more »
Nearly 1,000 migrating songbirds perish after crashing into windows at Chicago exhibition hallAlmost 1,000 migrating songbirds have perished after smashing into windows at an exhibition center on Chicago's lakefront
Read more »
Nearly 1,000 migrating songbirds perish after crashing into windows at Chicago exhibition hallAlmost 1,000 migrating songbirds have perished after smashing into windows at an exhibition center on Chicago's lakefront.
Read more »