Lights Out for Birds in San Francisco

One of the distressing realities of volunteering at a wildlife hospital as my husband and I do, is witnessing the casualty rate from animals colliding with modern technology, from automobiles to windmills. Among the most common injuries sustained by birds are window collisions. Migrating birds such as Cedar Waxwings (pictured below) are often crashing into glass, flying as they do in close formation or flushing from hazards that send them directly into windows.

We've probably all had a songbird hit a window of our home at one point or another. What many people may not realize is the magnitude of the injury. Window collisions can cause instant death, or brain hemorrhaging, or other internal bleeding.

When you magnify the number of birds that migrate through the Bay Area with the number of windows, particularly highrise windows on flight trajectories, the loss of bird life can be considerable. In a report submitted to the City of San Francisco by the American Bird Conservancy, it was estimated that that between 97 and 975 million birds were killed by collisions with windows every year in the United States (based on an estimate of 1 to 10 birds killed per building).

One statistic cited: the six-story Morgan Mail Handling Facility on Manhattan’s West Side, which killed 338 birds in the fall of 2006. The report goes on to say that "collisions with buildings are now considered to be secondary only to habitat loss and degradation as a major source of anthropogenic mortality for birds."

Because of this significant threat to bird populations, Golden Gate Audubon is conducting early morning census counts on bird mortality in San Francisco. From February 15 to May 15, volunteers will collect data and also retrieve injured or killed birds found during those hours. The data will be used for the San Francisco Lights Out for Birds program, which encourages lights off in tall buildings at night -- to reduce bird collisions and to conserve energy.

Chicago has implemented a Lights Out program whereby tall buildings turn off decorative lights during spring and fall bird migration. Researchers there estimate that more than ten thousand migratory bird lives are saved each year.

To learn more about Golden Gate Audubon's ongoing projects, or become a member or volunteer, check out their website at www.goldengateaudubon.org.

If you find a bird stunned or injured from a window collision or any other circumstance, check this list of Bay Area wildlife hospitals for information on where to call and what to do. Some hospitals accept native species only, others, such as Wildcare in Marin, accept non-native species as well.

Additional resources:

• Making Windows Safer for Birds (About.com: Animals)
• Preventing Bird-Window Collisions (Audubon)
• Lights Out for Birds Chicago (a successful Lights Out program)

^{Photos © Ingrid Taylar}