McCormick Place, Chicago, is the largest convention centre in North America and its glass facade is dangerous to birds. On the night of 4-5 October, the building's lights were on for an event, even though it is known that bright lights at night can divert birds from their original flight path. The result was at least 1000 birds colliding with the building and dying while in flight towards their wintering grounds in southern America.
Annette Prince, director of the Chicago Bird Collision Monitor, points out that this is the highest number of bird strikes on a building in a single incident, with volunteers still recovering carcasses within a good two-kilometre radius. The exact number of birds affected will become clear as clean-up efforts continue in downtown Chicago.
The bird species affected, including Tennessee Warblers, Hermit Thrush and American Woodcocks, show the diversity of species that were hit. From 4 to 5 October, about 1.5 million birds were airborne over Cook County, the Chicago metropolitan area.
Birds do not always die immediately on impact
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Not every bird strike leaves a dead bird at the site of impact. Some birds continue to fly but are seriously injured and do not survive the accident and die elsewhere.
Bryan Lenz of the American Bird Conservancy points out that up to one billion birds die each year in the USA as a result of collisions with buildings. In this case, the birds killed or injured were on their way from Canada to South and Central America for wintering.
Increasing light pollution in cities like Chicago also poses a significant risk to migratory birds. Turning off building lights at night would be an effective measure to reduce deadly bird strikes.
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McCormick Place is part of the "Lights Out Chicago" programme, where buildings turn off their lights at night unless the respective spaces are occupied
Currently too little action against bird strikes
According to Annette Prince, bird strike is a known hazard, yet limited measures are taken by building managers to prevent bird strike.
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She suggests marking window glass with markings such as dots or patterns to make the glass visible to birds as an obstacle. A strong call for bird-proofing glass and retrofitting windows and facades.
The City of Chicago passed a bird-friendly building ordinance in 2020, but it has not yet gone into effect.
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Illinois' Bird Safe Buildings Act, signed in 2021, aims to mandate "bird-friendly design for the construction and renovation of state-owned buildings".
Researchers such as Brendon Samuels from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, also stress the importance of retrofitting, creating tax credits for environmental initiatives and adjusting windows to minimise the risk to birds.
He points out that there are already a number of solutions available, i.e. a growing number of bird protection glasses. However, such bird protection glasses would have to be integrated even more into policies or building regulations to ensure effective security against proposals.
Edited by Matthias Rehberger of GW
