1,000 'carpet of dead birds' found after crashing into building while migrating

09 October 2023 , 18:42

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The birds were migrating south during the night when they grew confused by the building's lights (Image: AP)

At least 1,000 birds tragically died after crashing into a single building in Chicago while migrating - which is the highest number on record.

The songbirds died on Wednesday night after smashing into the windows of McCormick Place, the largest convention centre in the US, when a caretaker for the building noticed a "carpet of dead birds" on Thursday morning. Experts have called it a "shocking outlier" and admitted no more than 15 birds would normally die on a typical evening.

David Willard, who had been inspecting the grounds, said: "In 40 years of keeping track of what's happening at McCormick, we've never seen anything remotely on that scale." Volunteers are still recovering the carcasses of the birds after it was revealed to be the highest number of bird strikes that the group recorded from the grounds of one building in a single day. However, experts believe window strikes are preventable by dimming the lights on buildings.

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Workers at the Chicago Field Museum inspect the bodies of migrating birds (AP)

“Not every bird that hits the window is going to leave behind a body,” Brendon Samuels told The Guardian, who researches bird window collisions at the University of Western Ontario. “In fact, we often see birds collide with glass and they continue flying some distance away, seriously injured in ways that ultimately they won’t survive past a few hours."

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There are believed to be more birds who have yet to be found (AP)

According to research in 2014, between 365 million and 988 million birds die in window strikes every year across the US. This is due to the birds comprehending that glass is a barrier, as they fly into them when they see plants or bushes reflected. Matt Igleski, executive director of the Chicago Audubon Society, said these incidents are "really common". He told Sky News: "We see this in pretty much every major city during spring and fall migration. This was a very catastrophic single event, but when you add it all, it's always like that."

The birds crashed into the McCormick Place Lakeside Centre (Trade Show Network)

A spokeswoman for the centre confirmed the hall turns interior lighting off unless it is needed by staff, clients, or visitors - but an event had been going on there all week. “It is important to understand that there is an event going on at Lakeside Center [part of McCormick Place] this week, so, therefore, the lights have been on when occupied. Once the space is unoccupied, the lights have been turned off,” said a representative from McCormick Place.

Mr Willard, who has been a caretaker for years, said: "It's an odd building. When it was built, people weren't thinking about bird safety. They still aren't in most architecture. It's right on the lakefront. There are many nights when it's lit up. People are describing the whole night of migration as part of a once-in-a-lifetime thing ... [but] this still is an unacceptable intrusion by humans and their architecture. Just terribly sad and dramatic."

Liam Buckler