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Chicago Bird Collision Monitor at work. Volunteers rescue bird injured by window strikes.
To understand the effect that the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors organization is having on the city of Chicago, picture the following scene: A man wearing an expensive business suit is walking the streets of the Chicago loop carrying a brown paper bag. Inside the bag is a tiny bird weighing no more than three ounces. As he carries the bag, the man is scanning every block, looking for someone. He spies what he¹s looking for and makes a beeline for a person who turns out to be a Chicago Bird Collision volunteer. "There you are!" the man in the business suit exclaims. "I have a bird in this bag!"
"How did you find me?" the volunteer asks.
"Oh, I know you people are here all the time," he says with a hint of pride and relief.
Indeed, the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors put in hours patrolling the early morning streets of Chicago, collecting and rescuing birds that have struck windows in the one-square mile area that constitutes the Loop. It is both a triumphal and sobering vigil, kept by people who rise at 3:00 in the morning to take an early morning train to arrive before sunrise. On any given day there are 10-12 Bird Collision Monitors walking the Loop with an eye out for injured, dazed or confused birds.
They also find a high number of dead birds. In either case, they are in a race to find these specimens before the sun comes up and a vigilante group of natural and semi-natural avian and mammalian predators swoops in to make off with an easy meal of helpless or fatally injured migratory birds.
About 5000 birds are found each year on the streets and sidewalks of Chicago during migration seasons in spring and fall. Up to 300 birds can be found in a single day. The spring season migration runs from March 15-June 15. The fall migration season runs from August 15 through November 15.
To the human residents of the city, these months may not seem like anything special. The morning and evening commute back and forth through the buildings downtown may vary somewhat by season, but the routine is relatively easy to negotiate. But to birds migrating north in spring and south in fall, the city of Chicago (and many others like it on other bird migration routes througout the world) presents a wide, tall and distracting physical barrier standing right in the path of migration routes that have followed the pattern for millennia.
Birds that migrate by night follow an array of cues that can include visual orientation with the stars, communication calls from fellow migrants, magnetism from the earth, topographical landmarks and other ways of keeping track where they¹re going. But when they hit the city with its bright lights jutting above the horizon, many birds don¹t know what to make of the disorienting power of high lumens artificial lights. They fly right for the buildings and sometimes smack into glass or steel at speeds averaging between 15-30 miles an hour, depending on the species and weather conditions.
These impacts are not easy to absorb for small birds with fragile skeletons. Some suffer concussions. Others break beaks, wings or legs. A few strike glancing blows and tumble earthward. The lucky ones land softly enough to survive. Many undiscovered birds perish on building ledges and rooftops. Urban gulls and crows have learned to search the streets and buildings for easy meals during the migration season. Some species have even begun to nest in the city in order to capitalize on the easy bounty of dead and dying migratory birds that can be easily captured and fed to their young.
Into the midst of this carnage strides one Annette Prince, a DuPage County (IL) resident who decided in 2004 she¹d seen enough migrating bird fatalities and wanted to do something about it. She joined up with the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors and now runs a deeply committed network of more than 80 volunteers whose main work is scooping up birds in various states of distress on the streets of the city.
The work has its rewards. Of the 5000 birds found on average each spring and fall season, about 40% are still living and get carted off to the Willowbrook Wildlife Haven in Glen Ellyn for inspection and hopefully, rehabilitation and release. The unlucky ones are collected and delivered to the Field Museum of Natural History for scientific purposes. One study measures the size of bird skeletons to track a potential variety of natural factors affecting the biology of migrating birds, including the consideration that some species of birds may actually be shrinking in size as an evolutionary response response to global warming. Within a species, northern varieties tend be larger in size in northern climates, smaller in southern climes. Keeping track of average skeleton size may provide baseline information about the overall effects of global temperature on wildlife.
The volunteers who work the streets collecting birds typically arrive before dawn. Their job is to walk around looking for birds from 4:30 or so to about 9:30 a.m. Some people get up early, rescue birds and then head off to work. The rescue work consists of putting living birds into plain brown paper bags with the tops closed with clips. Inside the bag is a napkin or paper towel onto which the injured bird may cling or hide. They store the injured birds in a dark, quiet place, reducing stress on an already hurting avian patient. Then a driver wheels them out to Willowbrook Wildlife Haven in Glen Ellyn where the daily triage takes place. Some birds have already recovered during the drive west. They are released immediately. Others require a bit more nursing and care before they are released.
Each living bird is now banded in hopes that the CBCM will learn about wherethese birds go after they are rescued in Chicago. Even if the odds are thin on recovering a small bird with a band, even a few recaptured or discovered birds would provide valuable information about migration patterns and survival rates that are difficult to track. The Chicago Bird Collision Monitors have handled 138 total species of birds in their 5-year history of making the rounds during Chicago. These include rare species like the Yellow Rail, a bird many birdwatchers go to considerable lengths to find. "I've seen mine walking along Wacker Drive," Annette Prince chuckles.
Many of the species found in the city are far out of their natural habitat. For example, woodcocks are a commonly rescued species in Chicago. Woodcocks are a ground-dwelling species of with long beaks for probing soil in search of food. No one knows precisely why so many woodcocks are found in the city these days during migration. It could have something to do with the fact that the region now covered by the City of Chicago was once dotted with high quality marshes and wetlands. Bird migration is hardwired by genetics into successive generations. The short period of time it took for the city to crop up along the lakefront has not been enough to deter birds like migrating Woodcocks from following ancient pathways that formerly provided access to plenty of food.
Annette Prince bristles when she hears people saying negative things about the intelligence of birds killed by running into windows. "I¹ve heard people say, 'Well, if they¹re stupid enough to run into a window they deserve to die.' " Prince notes. "Birds as well as people do not see glass. Humans have learned to recognize glass as a barrier by using other visual cues. Birds are naturally drawn to lighted areas and the reflections on glass exactly mimic their natural environment. There¹s nothing stupid about it. The fact is that cities have been around for a short period of time compared to the natural processes driving evolution. Most birds simply have not had time to adapt or live most of their lives in environments nothing like the city. They migrate to the jungles of Central America and live on fruit and insects six months of the year. It¹s only this one stop during migration where they encounter buildings. So we (Chicago Bird Collision Monitors) think they deserve every chance to avoid getting harmed on their amazing journeys," Prince says. "Birds killed by collisions by glass aren’t necessarily the weakest members of their species which is how natural selection usually operates on populations. Glass is indiscriminant when it comes to harming birds. The dead and injured could be the strongest representatives of their group which makes their loss even more devastating to their numbers which are already threatened by habitat loss and other man-made hazards."
That¹s where the advocacy agenda of the CBCM kicks in. The organization began working with building and city managers 6 years ago to convince major buildings like the John Hancock building with its bright white ring around the roof to darken its display lights during peak migration. Many Chicago buildings now turn out their "display" lights which have no real purpose in terms of safety or aviation warnings, but instead are turned on simply to highlight the height or structure of the building at night. But the seemingly benign purpose of showing off a building is a deadly attractant to migrating birds.
"We¹ve gotten a lot of cooperation from building owners in turning out their lights at night," Prince says. "We¹re grateful for that, and are working with building owners now at the ground level as well, where interior lobbies with green plants and strong lighting make birds think they¹re flying into a well-lighted forest. They smack into the windows and die.'
Some building owners have been less willing to consider the lobby lighting issue. A darkened building at street level can seem foreboding, and some building owners express concerns about security for staff, residents and occupants of their buildings. So street level lighting management is a work in progress, but there is progress. In some cases motion sensors respond to foot traffic in the building and turn on lights.
The other approach is to install temporary netting as a preventative device to deter birds from striking windows. Some buildings paint the glass surface with mediums like greenhouse paint. Others install appliqués or signage to alert birds there is a solid substance ahead. All these steps are saving the lives of many birds.
Annette Prince and her crew maintain a web site at http://www.birdmonitors.net/intro.html. The site contains useful information about how to protect and transport injured birds. It does advise against handling dangerous species like herons whose beaks are a threat to handlers as well as hawks and owls whose beaks and talons are downright dangerous. Most other species can be scooped into a bag carefully and stored in a quiet, dark place.
Bird Collision Monitoring has spread to cities across North America including New York, Toronto, Minneapolis and San Francisco. Wherever the paths of migrating birds and urban skyscrapers meet, there is a potential for bird fatalities. Monitors like Annette Prince are hoping that cities become enlightened (no pun intended) enough to pass ordinances requiring building owners to darken their display lights and work within a set of guidelines to design and maintain structures that are not so great a threat to birds and other wildlife. Prince is hoping that bird safety will become a fixture of environmentally friendly architecture the world over.
In North America, bird collision monitoring began in Toronto and has spread to cities such as New York, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Baltimore and San Francisco. Wherever the paths of migrating birds and urban skyscrapers meet, there is a potential for bird fatalities. Monitors like Annette Prince are hoping that cities become enlightened (no pun intended) enough to pass ordinances requiring building owners to darken their display lights and work within a set of guidelines to design and maintain structures that are not so great a threat to birds and other wildlife. Prince is hoping that bird safety will become a fixture of environmentally friendly architecture the world over.
It is probable people like Annette Prince will always be needed to rescue birds injured in the city of Chicago, and other cities like it. But given a chance to understand why and how help is important, plenty of people seem interested. That man in a business suit carrying a paper bag with a bird inside is testament to the fact that people can learn to care even in a city whose environment is not always a friendly place to be.
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