After flying into a Chicago building, 1,000 migratory birds perish in one day

People visiting or traveling through McCormick Place Lakeside Center in Chicago, Illinois, early on Thursday morning saw horrifying images in a grisly tragedy. At least 1,000 birds who were migrating south to spend the winter perished when they flew into a single Chicago skyscraper. Everyone was in utter amazement as a result of the terrible situation since there were an enormous number of birds—the most ever seen in a single day.

1.5 million birds were reportedly in the skies above Cook County at their highest number on the previous Wednesday and Thursday. The Chicago metropolitan region is located there. The majority of the birds whose bones were found belonged to the subspecies of Tennessee warblers, hermit thrushes, and American woodcocks. However, volunteers have not yet found all of the bird corpses, and the search for their remains is still underway.

Chicago Bird Collision Monitors director Annette Prince said, “It’s the tip of an iceberg but it’s it’s a huge, huge amount of birds we found both dead and injured.”

Brendon Samuels, a researcher at the University of Western Ontario who studies bird-window collisions, said that “Not every bird that hits the window is going to leave behind a body.” He noted that while volunteers are still collecting birds across downtown Chicago, the precise number of afflicted birds won’t be known for a few days.

It is important to note that many birds perish during peak migration seasons for a variety of causes. For these birds, a variety of situations, such as opposed wind, rain, and fog, might be quite problematic, making it difficult for them to live. They also have to contend with city pollutants, which may imprison them and cause them to perish.

The light pollution in Chicago has been proven to pose the most threat to migratory birds. On the other hand, if the building’s lights are turned off, it may be decreased. “It is important to understand that there is an event taking place at Lakeside Center this week, so, therefore, the lights have been on when occupied,” a spokesman from McCormick Place said. The lights have been switched off once the room has been left empty.