This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 at 8:05 pm and is filed under Bird Information, Migration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 3, 2008
Birds, like moths, are attracted to light at night and if they become disoriented, will fly in circles around the lights in a tall building, often hitting the building, or dropping exhausted to the ground. The phenomenon is not understood by scientists, but a researcher at the Bell Museum in Minneapolis, along with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, is spearheading a program to turn off the lights to protect migrating birds. Participants in the programs, including the owners, tenants, and management companies from 32 buildings Minneapolis, St. Paul, Bloomington, and Rochester, will dim their building lights during the spring and fall bird migration seasons. Similar programs are in place in Toronto, New York, and Chicago. Adding the Minnesota cities is important, said Bell Museum ornithologist Bob Zink, because they are located along the Mississippi River flyway, a major thoroughfare for migrating birds. In addition to lowering the light in the night migration routes, researchers are also trying to determine why birds fly into some buildings at a much higher rate than others.
In Minneapolis, 67 percent of the bird kills were caused by just two of the city’s skyscrapers.
(Info from an article in Live Science)
September 9th, 2008 at 5:13 am
Lights In Tall Buildings Attract Birds | Birds DunRite…
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September 9th, 2008 at 6:53 am
Lights In Tall Buildings Attract Birds | Birds DunRite…
I love your products! They are so inexpensive and they really look good in my lawn. The birds seem to love and enjoy them too – they can’t just get enough of the bird baths and birdfeeders that I placed there….