hey all, i thought you might want to read this story about how we
can save migrating birds and a few pennies on electricity!

regards,

Deborah Wisti-Peterson, PhD Candidate nyneve at u.washington.edu
Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash, USA
Visit me on the web: http://students.washington.edu/~nyneve/
Love the creator? Then protect the creation.

Skyscrapers Turn Out Lights to Save Migrating Birds

Story Filed: Thursday, May 31, 2001 10:36 AM EST

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The man-made mountain range that looms over Lake
Michigan is noticeably dimmer on spring nights, not because of an
energy shortage but to keep migratory birds from slamming into Chicago's
clusters of glassy towers.

Each year about 100 million birds across the United States are killed in
crashes into windows or die from exhaustion after becoming mesmerized by
lighted buildings, scientists say.

``Any one building might be killing 2,000 birds a year,'' said Doug
Stotz, an ornithologist at Chicago's Field Museum.

Now more than a dozen Chicago skyscrapers and lakefront buildings have
turned off outdoor lights or closed window shades and drapes to reduce the
toll on
migratory birds. Their actions cut bird deaths by 75 percent or more,
scientists say.

``Whether birds are striking buildings, communication towers, power lines,
or
hitting airplanes or getting whacked by cars, they are all mortality
factors,''
said Al Manville, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.

``The most vulnerable are the 350 migratory species such as vireos,
warblers, and thrushes,'' many already endangered, he said.
``Pesticides, herbicides, even house cats kill many birds,'' he said,
adding that thousands of songbirds would be spared if pet cats were
kept indoors during migration season.

Some 5 billion migratory birds travel across the eastern half of the
United States during spring and autumn migrations. They fly at night,
avoiding airborne predators, and navigate by starlight, moonlight and
geographical clues such as rivers and lake and ocean shorelines,
scientists say.


BIRDS ARE CONFUSED

In a phenomenon that is not fully understood, the birds become confused
by building lights, particularly on cloudy or misty nights. They circle
like moths around a flame until they are exhausted, or crash into windows
that either appear transparent or reflect the surrounding terrain or sky.

Some birds are fooled by mirror-glass skyscrapers along East Coast and
Great Lakes flyways, both densely traveled routes between their winter
havens in the tropics of Central and South America and their North
American nesting grounds.

In Chicago, City Hall took up the crusade to darken the city's impressive
skyline during bird migration season.

``Some buildings shine colored lights for the holidays, so we said,
'What about celebrating or recognizing migratory birds by dimming your
lights?''' said Jessica Rio of Chicago's Department of the Environment.

``Before the program began there were a lot of dead birds on the roof
during migration season -- it was a decent cleanup job,'' said Roy
Endsley, manager of the 65-storey Three-Eleven South Wacker tower.

He said few bird deaths occur now that the downtown tower's signature
lighted crown has been doused for several weeks twice a year. And bird
watchers have spotted 80 different species lingering in the small patch
of greenery astride the building.

Birds not diverted to the city's concrete jungle find an oasis in its
lakefront parks, though some fall prey to an increasing number of
urbanized raptors including peregrine falcons and kestrels.

To provide the migrating birds a hiding place and food, the parks
department adopted environmentalists' suggestions to plant more native
trees and shrubs and delay grass mowing.


DRAWN INTO DEATH TRAPS

Sadly, migratory birds often fly thousands of miles, some using every
ounce of energy to traverse natural barriers such as the Gulf of Mexico,
only to be drawn into death traps by the lights and glass windows of
urban sprawl, scientists say.

``If this were a well-recognized problem -- if people saw dead birds
lying at the entrance -- I think that many architects would be persuaded
to not use reflectorized glass,'' said Shankar Nair, chairman of the
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, a group of engineers and
architects.

Windows are indispensable tools for architects, ``bringing the outside
in and the inside out'' in daylight, and lighting illuminates the
impressive skyline at night, Nair said.

``I don't think any architect wants to see his building blacked out when
others are not,'' he said. But more Chicago building owners are seeing
the light by shutting off theirs, a group representing the owners said.

``We're not enduring the same energy crisis that's going on in California,
but building owners might be able to save a few pennies'' while performing
a good deed, said John Colgan of Chicago's Building Owners and Managers
Association.

Meanwhile, volunteers in Chicago, New York and Toronto -- where the
``lights out'' program first began in the mid-1990s -- continue to scoop
up dead or stunned birds beneath the towers.

``I'm trying to constantly impress upon people that these are not the
pigeons, gulls, or geese that are dying, these are birds with
endangered populations,'' said Michael Mesure, who runs Toronto's Fatal
Light Awareness Program (FLAP).

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Manville said more than 200 birds
species are ``in trouble,'' with nearly half of those heading toward
extinction.


TRAMPOLINE FOR BIRDS

In New York City, a stopover for birds migrating along its coastline or
the Hudson River, few buildings have taken precautions. The landmark twin
World Trade Center towers did stretch thin netting across the facades on
lower floors that safely bounces wayward birds off like a trampoline.

But most skyscrapers crowding lower Manhattan take a toll on a variety of
songbirds and shore birds, according to volunteers seeking to publicize
the lights-out effort. Birds are found dead or stunned beside glassed-in
garden atriums or vainly seeking shelter in tiny planters following
collisions.

``Habitat that can make cities livable for humans can become deadly for
birds,'' said Rebekah Creshkoff, a volunteer tracking bird deaths in
the city.

She said she has sought to educate building owners about saving birds by
turning out lights, replacing transparent or reflective windows with
solid-looking glass, planting trees flush against buildings and installing
netting.

``It is slow going,'' she added.

Scientists say the fragmentation of forest habitat caused by development
may be too big a hurdle for some songbird varieties, regardless of
efforts to smooth their migration.

Some species that require a buffer of forested land to nest successfully
are losing ground, providing an opening to natural enemies such as the
increasingly populous cowbird, which prefers the forest edge.

A cowbird noses an egg out of a songbird's nest and lays one of its own
to be raised by the surrogate parents, often spelling doom for the
songbird's own slower-developing chicks.



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