Chicago exhibition center modifying windows to prevent bird strikes after massive kill last year

CHICAGO (AP) — An exhibition center on Chicago’s lakefront has launched a $1.2 million effort to prevent bird strikes after hundreds of songbirds crashed into the building in one night last fall.

The McCormick Place Lakeside Center began installing film etched with tiny dots on its windows in June, the Chicago Tribune reported. The dots are designed to help birds distinguish between windows and nature. The work should be completed by early September, in time for fall migrations.

Nearly 1,000 songbirds migrating south perished in one night last October after crashing into the center’s 200 yards of windows, the result of a confluence of factors including prime migration conditions, rain and the low-slung exhibition hall’s lights and window-lined walls, according to avian experts.

Researchers estimate hundreds of millions of birds die in window strikes in the United States each year. Birds don’t see clear or reflective glass and don’t understand it is a lethal barrier. When they see plants or bushes through windows or reflected in them, they head for them, killing themselves in the process.

Birds that migrate at night, like sparrows and warblers, rely on the stars to navigate. Bright lights from buildings both attract and confuse them, leading to window strikes or birds flying around the lights until they die from exhaustion — a phenomenon known as fatal light attraction.

New York City has taken to shutting off the twin beams of light symbolizing the World Trade Center for periods of time during its annual Sept. 11 memorial ceremony to prevent birds from becoming trapped in the light shafts.

The National Audubon Society launched a program in 1999 called Lights Out, an effort to encourage urban centers to turn off or dim lights during migration months. Nearly 50 U.S. and Canadian cities have joined the movement, including Chicago, Toronto, New York, Boston, San Diego, Dallas and Miami.