News Feature
Lights Out Cleveland Has Recovered About 1,000 Dead or Injured Birds This Migratory Season After Building Collisions
With a little more than a month left in the fall migration, the group could surpass their average
In Philadelphia, there were 1,500 in one day. In Chicago, there were 1,000 in one morning—victims of the McCormack Place convention center.And on one day in Cleveland last week, over 100 birds flying south over Lake Erie crashed into buildings downtown, a natural byproduct of the unavoidable mix of fall migration and glass skyscrapers.The seasonal push for bird species, mixed with the many times fatal allure of light and glass, is why Lights Out, a bird-saving volunteer group nestled in the Lake Erie Nature & Science Center, exists. From August 15th, the start of the migration, until October 4th, the all-volunteer group has recovered 927 birds, 286 that have survived and been rehabilitated, and 558 found dead on the sidewalks. (The others are in care, or died in captivity.) Most of those have been warblers and sparrows.
In Philadelphia, there were 1,500 in one day. In Chicago, there were 1,000 in one morning—victims of the McCormack Place convention center...
