![]() Bird-watchers use it to track sighting opportunities bird rescuers use it to track potential tragedy. Staff and volunteers follow radar reports on, a website that shows incoming nocturnal bird migrations. McMahon and her colleagues were expecting the birds. It’s very heartening and so reassuring to learn that New Yorkers are that compassionate,” she says. They’re on the watch for things they haven’t noticed before. “I believe there is a silver lining to COVID. Since April, the center has been taking in more injured animals than the same period last year. Watch the Wild Bird Fund staff at work, in this video filmed shortly after the organization opened in 2014. Otherwise he will die of hypothermia on the sidewalk.” “If you put a bird in your pocket or paper bag, you could be saving his life. It can take them two hours to get to us,” she says. Like from the edge of Brooklyn, or Rockaway Beach. It’s not that more birds are crashing, McMahon says. Nor-despite the record numbers of birds brought into the Wild Bird Fund last weekend-is there any indication that it’s getting worse in New York. Navigating glass windows is a minefield for any bird, but most who crash are “first years,” says McMahon-they’re less than a year old and haven’t migrated through a city before.īirds colliding with glass is not a new problem. During the day, windows reflect trees and sky, creating an invisible obstacle. Interior lights behind windows confuse night-migrating birds, disrupting their ability to navigate and drawing them towards the light. Migrating birds, says Rita McMahon, founder and executive director of the Wild Bird Fund, fly through New York (and Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, and many other major East Coast cities that comprise the Atlantic Flyway migration path) and collide with glass on buildings. Nationwide, the number is estimated to be a staggering one billion. New York City Audubon scientists estimate that up to 240,000 birds die annually from collisions in the city. The annual winter migration south for North American birds started a few weeks ago, and with migration comes collisions. Between Friday, October 2, and Saturday, October 3, the Wild Bird Fund took in a record 220 injured birds, three-quarters of which were migratory songbirds including northern parulas, common yellow-throats, and many warbler species, She didn’t know at the time that New York was in the midst of a wave of bird collisions. ‘Where did your bird come from? Where did you find your bird? Do you want to see my bird?’” “Our little ambulances are basically paper shopping bags and shoeboxes.” Everyone in line bonded over their tiny charges. ![]() “It’s kind of like a bird emergency room,” Yue says.
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