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The Fight for a Bird-Friendly Chicago
Bird-safe glass can prevent birds from dying in window strikes.
© Tony Webster
Window collisions kill nearly one billion birds every year in the U.S., with many fatalities occurring during spring and fall migration. Judy Pollock, president of the Chicago Bird Alliance, says this problem has a solution: using bird-safe glass or applying a tight grid of decals to existing windows to make them easier for birds to see.
Though many building owners are reluctant to make these much needed changes, Judy and her collaborators are advocating for a city-wide ordinance that would require new construction and major renovations in Chicago to use bird-safe glass. Learn more about Bird-Friendly Chicago in our latest episode of Bring Birds Back.
BirdNote®
The Fight for a Bird-Friendly Chicago
Written by Jasmine ‘Jazzi’ Johnson
Deja Perkins: This is BirdNote.
[Canada Warbler in background, ML609737233]
Collisions with glass windows kill nearly one billion birds every year in the U.S.. And Chicago, an important passageway for millions migrating annually, sees a lot of these fatalities — especially at its large convention center, McCormick Place:
Judy Pollock: This building has a kind of mortality that you don't see very often because it's right on the lake. These birds don't have experience with glass, you know, they're reflecting trees, they're reflecting sky, sometimes you can see right through a building, and the birds – they fly into them.
Deja Perkins: Judy Pollock, President of Chicago Bird Alliance, says this problem has a solution: using bird-safe glass or applying a tight grid of decals to existing windows.
Judy Pollock: If you don't have treated windows, you're just drawing birds in to their deaths.
Deja Perkins: The bad news is most building owners are not interested in doing extra work to keep birds safe. But when more than a thousand birds were killed in one day at McCormick Place, Judy says the scales finally tipped.
Judy Pollock: We had many, many meetings with them and they've done nothing– but finally, they have treated their windows.
Deja Perkins: For years, Judy has been organizing with Bird-Friendly Chicago for a city-wide ordinance that would mandate new construction and major renovations to use bird-safe glass. She just hopes that it won’t take another tragedy to get it passed.
Learn more about Chicago’s fight for a bird-friendly city on the new season of Bring Birds Back. Available now in your favorite podcast app or at BirdNote dot org. I’m Deja Perkins.
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Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Canada Warbler recording ML609737233 by Alex Colucci.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote October 2024
Narrator: Deja Perkins
ID# PodBBB-36-2024-11-07 PodBBB-36
Deja Perkins
Narrator
Jazzi Johnson
Writer
