Hundreds of thousands of birds were estimated to be flying over Cook County and other parts of the Chicago area overnight
Thousands of birds are expected to migrate over the Chicago area overnight, triggering a “Migration Alert” to help protect the flying travelers. According to BirdCast, a service powered by a variety of groups and institutions including The CornellLab, Colorado State University and others,
nearly one million birds crossed over Cook County over a period stretching from Monday evening into Tuesday morning. That number marked the highest migration rate of the season so far, with nearly 200,000 birds fully crossing over the state of Illinois overnight, officials said. Thousands more migrating birds are expected to take to the skies overnight, and as a
result BirdCast has issued a “Migration Alert,” asking residents to help keep the birds safe. During “Migration Alerts,” homeowners and building managers are asked to turn off lights and to take other precautions to help protect migrating birds. Owners of tall buildings are asked to turn off or dim decorative lights during migration season. Residents and building owners are also asked to close blinds when possible so that birds don’t become disoriented by bright lights. Baltimore Orioles are one of the bird species migrating in high numbers, along with Yellow Warblers, Nashville Warblers and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks,
according to the website. Typically bird migrations peak in mid-to-late May over Illinois. According to the city of Chicago, more than eight
million birds migrate through the Chicago area each spring. Local
McCormick Place, long one of the most dangerous buildings along the lakeshore for birds, recently installed 3.6 million dots on its windows to help prevent bird strikes, and the program has drastically reduced the number of bird strikes at the building, officials have said.
