Hundreds of migrating birds died during the night and early morning of September 14 and 15 after colliding with buildings at the World Trade Center complex (WTC) in New York City. American Bird Conservancy (ABC), New York City Audubon, and other partners are already working to engage with managers of the buildings at the WTC complex to remediate their glass, making the area safer for birds.
As many as one billion birds die in collisions with glass each year in the U.S. Most of these collisions take place during the day, as migrating birds are looking for food to replenish energy reserves and mistake reflections on glass for habitat.
Sometimes, a combination of factors creates events like the mass collision at the WTC. Because of stormy conditions on Tuesday night, night-migrating songbirds, including the Black-and-white Warbler, Northern Parula, and Ovenbird, flew lower to the ground. It’s likely that they were then attracted by bright artificial lights at the WTC site, which, combined with strong winds, produced mortalities as birds tried to land. Birds that survived the landing collided lethally with glass as the sun rose the next day.
“Glass in the built environment is always dangerous to birds and, unfortunately, birds are killed by collisions with glass every day. When bad weather brings birds down and lights bring them in, danger and mortality are increased,” says Christine Sheppard, ABC’s Bird Collisions campaign director.
A 2019 study reported that the U.S. and Canadian bird population dropped by a net of almost three billion birds since 1970. Glass collisions are a major threat to birds, but there are simple actions that anyone can take to help combat this problem. Basic adjustments to both home and commercial windows can save birds’ lives.
Great article and very informative on an important topic. However, it is very bad news about the number of birds lost in the last half century. It would have helped immensely if the article had ended with some home adjustments we could make to help reduce the problem.
One home adjustment is the close the blinds, shades, etc., as often as possible, so birds see something opaque.
Another at-home solution is to apply clear bird-collision-mitigating tape to the outermost surface of your windows. I’ve installed Collidescape tape on our windows at home. We haven’t had any bird casualties this year, as compared to the 3 we had last year before the tape. And the tape is far less visually obtrusive than I thought it would be – I hardly notice it.