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In NYC, 1 in 4000 people died on 9/11. In Chicago, 1 in 2000 birds died the other day. (Not to say it's equivalent at all, just that it's certainly a newsworthy event to the birds).
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It's proportionally like the equivalent death toll of NYC on 9/11 or slightly higher. In NYC, 1 in 4000 people died on 9/11. In Chicago, 1 in 2000 birds died the other day. (Not to say it's equivalent at all, just that it's certainly a newsworthy event to the birds).
For buildings that don't have permanent bird strike mitigation measures built in, I wonder if temporary whitewash applied by window cleaners would help.
The bigger problem is that this is not the only building in Chicago that is hazardous to birds. Fix this one and there will be another noteworthy for the "most bird strikes" in Chicago.
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Earlier quoted context omitted.
Both Chicago and Illinois have bird friendly building ordinances but the building in question was built in 1960 long before they existed. It’s also massive so mitigations will take a long time to be applied.
> It’s also massive so mitigations will take a long time to be applied. Surely it cannot be too hard to slap 2 or 3 anti-collision decals on every window from the outside?
1000 birds don’t hit it _every day_ this was an exceptional even caused by specific conditions.
The facility is actively trying new lighting solutions to mitigate bird strikes as that’s the main issue.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It’s also massive so mitigations will take a long time to be applied. Surely it cannot be too hard to slap 2 or 3 anti-collision decals on every window from the outside?
There are stickers on the building. It is a nearly 600000 square foot building and the exterior is all windows. 1000 birds don’t hit it _every day_ this was an exceptional even caused by specific conditions. The facility is actively trying new lighting solutions to mitigate bird strikes as that’s the main issue.
Regulation is the answer here since the mitigation methods are known
This is not a common occurrence for the building in question.
I highly encourage anyone who had birds crash on their windows to install white dot stickers. I installed some last spring on my windows and not a single bird crashed on them since. At first they look a bit odd, but after a week they were almost invisible, turns out the brain is really good at hiding things we don't care to see. They are a bit of a pain to install but it is well worth the effort.
Finally, there are bug screens that have gotten very subtle too (high density thin weave with low visibility materials used in their construction). As well as reducing external reflection, those will just plain act as a softer shock absorber if a bird runs into one. And of course keep out insects, so doing their job anyway.
I'll add that I still do have (far fewer) bird hits once in awhile, but the big change seems to be outcome. Before a lot of birds died. Afterwards what seems to happen is the hits still see it at the last moment, and the hits have 99% turned into bellyflops. Not fun for the bird no doubt, but it also isn't lethal, they just fly away. Bird death in my experience is generally caused by broken necks, they fly in head first and their neck snaps and that's it. So even if they swerve as the very last moment, it's still a huge boost in survivability. On a big building it might help to have some nets out of sight below windows though so that birds which are temporarily stunned don't fall all the way to the ground.
I highly encourage anyone who had birds crash on their windows to install white dot stickers. I installed some last spring on my windows and not a single bird crashed on them since. At first they look a bit odd, but after a week they were almost invisible, turns out the brain is really good at hiding things we don't care to see. They are a bit of a pain to install but it is well worth the effort.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are stickers on the building. It is a nearly 600000 square foot building and the exterior is all windows. 1000 birds don’t hit it _every day_ this was an exceptional even caused by specific conditions. The facility is actively trying new lighting solutions to mitigate bird strikes as that’s the main issue.
A crew of window cleaners could hit it in under a week