Animals
Around 1,000 migratory birds crash into windows and die
There are currently many migratory birds on the move – like these cranes, here in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. photo
© Jens Büttner/dpa
A massive convention center in Chicago with large glass windows has become a deadly obstacle for nearly 1,000 migratory birds.
Around 1,000 birds crashed into the windows of a convention center in one night Hit Chicago and lost his life. This is an exceptionally high number, several US media reported.
True, such tragedies occur every year, especially during the autumn and spring migration of migratory birds. In the past 40 years, Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History has never documented such a high number, the institution wrote on Instagram.
Why so many birds?
“It was just frustrating,” bird expert David Willard told the Chicago Tribune newspaper. “You see a rose-breasted grosgrain that would have made it to the Peruvian Andes if it hadn’t flown into a window in Chicago.” He cited the illuminated windows of the convention center and unfavorable weather conditions as possible reasons for the incident.
Rain and warm temperatures delayed the migration of the birds, then they all started at the same time, CBS reported. This is also why there were a particularly large number of migratory birds in the area, explained Douglas Stotz from the Field Museum to CBS. In the largest incident of this kind to date in Chicago, around 200 birds died within one night, Stotz said.
Living on in research
“Every day during the spring and fall migration seasons, our scientists and volunteers rise at sunrise to search for birds that have flown into the convention center windows,” the Field Museum continued on Instagram.
If birds survive the collisions, they would be treated by veterinarians. “If the birds do not survive, their bodies will be taken to the museum,” it said. There they were used for scientific research. Climate change also affects migratory birds.