HIGH-RISING TOLL: Thousands of birds, like this ruby-crowned kinglet, ramNYC high-rises. (
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Manhattan is where birds come to die.
In the next few weeks, some 25,000 migrating birds — flying through New York City to their annual spring breeding grounds up north — will perish by smashing into glass skyscrapers, according to New York City Audubon, the local affiliate of the famed bird group.
“It’s rush hour now,” said Glenn Phillips of Audubon, which starting tomorrow will be setting up a scientific study at the Bronx Zoo in hope of coming up with less deadly building-glass designs.
It’s estimated that several million birds fly through New York City each year, Phillips said. All told, an alarming 90,000 die each year after crashing into buildings blocking their Atlantic flight path.
“It’s shocking,” said Phillips. “It’s really shocking.”
After a 200-mile, 10-hour night flight, the birds can be flying as fast as 30 mph when they collide with a building. The daily death toll peaks early in the morning — when birds see trees and clouds reflected in glass facades.
The extremely delicate creatures can suffer internal bleeding and head trauma upon high-speed impact with the city’s sky-high towers.
The most affected species are the white-throated sparrow, common yellow-throat, dark-eyed junco, ovenbird, ruby-crowned kinglet, hermit thrush, golden-crowned kinglet, black-and-white warbler, American woodcock, song sparrow, gray catbird and blackpoll warbler.
The autumn flyby is even deadlier as birds travel to their southern habitats.
Last week, a wounded American woodcock was discovered on 47th Street near Sixth Avenue. A local wildlife rehabilitator took the thin-beaked shorebird to the Wild Bird Fund Center on the Upper West Side.
The native white-throated sparrow, a bird with a black eye stripe and white crown, has a hearty population of 30 million. But every year 10,000 are killed crossing over New York City.
“That may be a drop in the bucket, but if you add it up among all the cities in the US, then it might have a significant impact” on the species, Phillips said
The US Postal Service’s Morgan Processing and Distribution Center in Chelsea once had the dubious distinction of 400 kamikaze bird deaths a year. But in 2007 a black nonreflective covering was placed over the windows on the north side of the high target area, and the following year there were no bird fatalities.
The Jacob Javits Center, which is undergoing renovation, is now using less reflective glass for that reason.
“The signs aren’t good,” Phillips explained. “If we are going to solve the problem, we are going to have to change the design of buildings and educate architects so their buildings are not harmful to birds.”
In the experiment beginning tomorrow in a shipping container set up at the Bronx Zoo, different glass materials will be tested. Captured birds will fly into safety nets placed in front of different-patterned or pixilated glass to find the best nonreflective, bird-friendly facade for future building construction.
Phillips said anyone who spots an injured or dead bird should report it to Audubon at (212) 691-7483.