Tag: bird deaths

Fcc Ordered to Protect Birds

A court is ordering the Federal Communications Commission to protect birds. Rebecca Williams reports the FCC has to find ways to keep birds from crashing into radio, TV and cell phone towers:

Transcript

A court is ordering the Federal Communications Commission to protect birds. Rebecca Williams reports the FCC has to find ways to keep birds from crashing into radio, TV and cell phone towers:


The government says each year, as many as 50 million birds are killed by communications towers.


Darin Schroeder is with American Bird Conservancy. He says birds mistake the tower lights for stars they use to migrate at night.


“They’re drawn to these towers, they circle the towers within this cone of light and they’re unable to escape so they either hit each other or hit the structure, or they fall exhausted, often to their death.”


Schroeder’s group was part of a lawsuit against the FCC. The court ruling means the FCC will need to find ways to protect birds from communications towers. That might mean installing different kinds of tower lights that won’t confuse birds.


For the Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.

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Birds Steer Clear of Buildings

As fall bird migration nears its end, scientists in Chicago are seeing what they say is an encouraging trend. Fewer migrating birds are hitting the windows of tall high-rises. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jesse Hardman has more:

Transcript

As fall bird migration nears its end…scientists in Chicago are seeing what they say is an encouraging trend. Fewer migrating birds are hitting the windows of tall high-rises. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jesse Hardman has more.


Scientists at Chicago’s field museum say an estimated one hundred million birds die every year after hitting windows. They say many of those deaths come during annual migrations. Bird expert Dave Willard says he’s been patrolling Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center for twenty years…collecting winged casualties of fall migration.


Willard says those numbers are starting to go down.


“In 1996 we might have picked up anywhere between five hundred and one thousand birds in the fall, this fall it will be probably under fifty.”


Willard and his colleagues suggest bright light confuses night migrators who use the stars and moon to navigate. He says this year’s drop in death is a direct result of a city initiative asking buildings to pull window shades and dim lights at night. Willard says other Great Lakes cities like Toronto are trying similar programs.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium I’m Jesse Hardman.