On the frontlines of the battle for a bird-friendly NYC

NEW YORK — On a cold October morning, Melissa Breyer arrived on the World Commerce Heart at 6:30 a.m. She rigorously surveyed by way of the high-rise buildings within the space, looking for birds which have fallen to the bottom after colliding with a constructing.

As a volunteer for Venture Protected Flight, a program run by the NYC Fowl Alliance to watch chicken collisions throughout the town, she has been strolling this path in the course of the early mornings of each migration season for the previous 5 years. On days when collisions are anticipated to be excessive, her routes begin as early as 5 a.m.

“I would wish to ensure that I may discover as many birds as doable,” stated Breyer. “The thought of them dying in useless simply makes me unhappy, and I need all of them to be counted within the knowledge (that’s) so vital.”

Yearly, throughout migration seasons in spring and fall, thousands and thousands of birds migrating alongside the Atlantic Flyway go by New York Metropolis, the place they face a excessive danger of colliding into buildings on account of reflective glass surfaces and lights at evening. In response to the NYC Fowl Alliance, 90,000 to 230,000 birds die annually due to constructing collisions.

Based in 1997, Venture Protected Flight started as a bunch of volunteers who monitored constructing collisions in downtown Manhattan. Immediately, it has over 200 volunteers patrolling in areas throughout the 5 boroughs, amassing data on chicken collisions. The birds discovered alive are despatched to rehabilitation on the Wild Fowl Fund on the Higher West Aspect, whereas people who died are donated to the American Museum of Pure Historical past.

Utilizing the info reported by the volunteers, researchers on the NYC Fowl Alliance are in a position to analyze patterns of chicken collisions throughout the town and use their findings to advocate for change. In 2019, the New York Metropolis Council handed Native Regulation 15 of 2020, which requires bird-safe supplies to be put in on newly constructed or altered buildings.

For Dustin Partridge, director of conservation and science on the NYC Fowl Alliance, the laws represents an enormous step towards a bird-friendly metropolis.

Nevertheless, he says there may be far more work to be executed, stating that synthetic lights and reflective glass in lots of buildings nonetheless contribute considerably to the issue.

“The most important want for New York Metropolis is lights-out laws, one thing that may require lights in rooms which are unoccupied at evening to go darkish throughout spring and fall migrations, from 11 p.m. to six a.m.,” Partridge stated. “If we will get these areas darkish, that may save an amazing variety of birds.”

New York Metropolis requires city-owned and city-managed buildings to show off nonessential outside lighting at evening throughout peak migration seasons, however advocates are encouraging extra privately owned buildings to do the identical.

Regardless of these challenges, Partridge says he’s optimistic due to the elevated public consciousness of chicken collisions and the nationwide efforts to deal with the issue.

“That is one thing that we will repair, it’s not out of our attain,” Partridge stated. “My hope is that in the future I haven’t got to return in and see a freezer filled with useless birds, and that future is feasible, however it may take work to get there.”