Chicago's McCormick Place works to prevent migratory birds from hitting windows and dying
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Forty thousand birds have died hitting McCormick Place since 1978, and last year during peak migration, 1,000 birds died in one night.
So as peak migration approaches again this fall, there are changes at McCormick Place to prevent the high number of bird deaths.
This is the time of year when birds make their trek across Lake Michigan before it gets too cold. Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority Chairman Jeff Bethke explained why McCormick Place is a major hazard for those birds.
"This facility is right on the lake, as you'll see, and we've had issues with bird strikes—as do many homes just in their windows," he said.
On Thursday, Oct. 5 last year, 961 birds died all in one night after crashing into the windows at the McCormick Place Lakeside Center—the oldest part of the McCormick Place complex, which dates back to 1971.
"It was really that incident that made us realize that we needed to up our game as it related to preventing those bird fatalities," Bethke said.
To prevent that from happening again, the MPEA worked with a few experts to add a bird film—composed of 3.6 million dots.
"It gives the birds enough of a warning so that they don't hit the glass," Bethke said. "It's a simple matter of making sure that they can see the glass and don't hit it."
Meanwhile, the birds that hit the glass end up with Douglas Stotz, a senior conservation ecologist at the Field Museum of Natural History.
"These are the 10 most common birds from McCormick Place," Stotz said. "Mostly migratory sparrows and all of them are common birds in Chicago."
Among the most common birds hitting McCormick Place and other greater downtown area buildings are white-throated sparrows. Many ended up at the Field Museum lab after that night that 961 birds died last year—and that led to a discovery.
"There's a change in the size of the birds. Basically, across time, their bodies have gotten smaller, while their wings have gotten a little longer," Stotz said, "and that seems to be related to climate change."
The bird prep lab at the Field Museum will continue to collect and learn more information with the thousands of species present, as McCormick Place hopes the new measure will give birds a heads up.
"Compared to last year at this point, I think it was around 140 birds that hit McCormick Place. This year, it's been like eight in the early part of fall," Stotz said. "So it looks like it's making a big difference."