'Perfect Storm' Causes 1K Bird Deaths At Chicago's McCormick Place

CHICAGO — As the migration of hundreds of millions of birds continues through the Midwest through November, a Chicago-area organization that carries on an ongoing bird rescue operation is still reeling after 1,000 birds were killed after colliding with a single Chicago building last week.

The birds were found dead last week after officials with Chicago Bird Collision Monitors said that they flew into the McCormick Place Lakeside Center Wednesday night and into Thursday morning. The birds are among millions that are in the Chicago area preparing to head south for the winter and that had been in a holding pattern waiting for the weather to shift, according to Annette Prince, the director of the local bird rescue operation.

Prince told Patch on Wednesday that while finding dead birds after they collide with buildings is nothing new for the not-for-profit group, more than 2,500 dead and injured birds have been discovered in Chicago over the past five days. That number, Prince said, is as many as the organization sometimes finds in a full season.

The start of October marks the time when more birds begin to head south due to weather conditions. However, a weather pattern that moved through the area last week created a “perfect storm” that saw “an unprecedented number” birds traveling than normal. In the case of McCormick Place, the birds were drawn to the glass building after lights inside the building were left on, Prince said.

Prince said that more than 600 million birds in the United States were in flight on Wednesday night when the combination of rainy conditions and cloud cover perhaps forced birds to fly lower than normal. A good number of those birds were traveling through the Great Lakes region, Prince said, which created more opportunities for dangerous situations involving birds colliding with buildings in the downtown area.

In many cases, several buildings in the downtown area reported the discovery of hundreds of dead birds. But nothing compared to the bird deaths reported at McCormick Place, which Prince said has routinely failed to cooperate with the group’s efforts to have the building’s lights turned off after 11 p.m.

The building presents a “recipe for danger” for birds, Prince said, simply because it is one of the first buildings that birds encounter once over the shores of Lake Michigan. But, Prince said, the issue of protecting birds against colliding with buildings is bigger than one structure.

“It’s an event that is going on and even though we don’t find 1,000 (deaths) at a single building, it adds up every day there are 20 at one building,” Prince told Patch.

“So, all buildings should be ready that they could become the next McCormick Place because leaving your lights on when this accumulation of birds and the weather conditions are right, they’re just one perfect storm away from being in that same situation.”

In a statement issued last week, McCormick Place building management cited “unusual weather conditions” that were coupled with avian confusion caused by lights coming from buildings.

“The well-being of birds is of high importance to us, and we are truly saddened by this incident,” the statement said. “McCormick Place has been actively involved in bird conservation efforts including maintaining the six-acre McCormick Place bird sanctuary along the lakefront.”

The building management statement also said it has worked with Prince’s organization and other groups, which has reduced the number of bird collisions by 80 percent. It said that lighting at the building is routinely shut off unless it is needed by employees, clients, or visitors and said that once events are done, lights are turned off. It also said it is working to come up with better solutions to avoid more bird deaths in the future.

In Chicago, Prince said that about 90 percent of building management groups comply with requests for lights to be turned off so as to not attract birds. McCormick Place has collected tens of thousands of dead birds over the years, and yet, the building’s management has routinely chosen to “resolutely refuse” to heed pleas from the bird collision monitoring group to adjust its lighting practices. She said that the accumulation of bird deaths as well as the event that took place last week “should be a wake-up call” to change the way it conducts its business.

She said it is a simple matter of either turning lights out or having window coverings in place to ensure that birds are not attracted to the building.

Prince said the group has circulated a petition seeking to have the building’s behavior change and said it has asked Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. J.B. Pritzker to get involved in seeking change from McCormick Place’s management despite the efforts that the building's management insists it has followed to protect birds from colliding into the convention center.

The requests to those who manage buildings like McCormick Place and the BMO Harris bank building downtown only apply to migration season, which runs from mid-August through mid-November and then again from mid-March until mid-June when birds return north, Prince said. The group is also concerned with the new casino that recently opened in Chicago and that will routinely include bright lights along the Chicago River.

Given BMO Harris’ downtown location along the Chicago River and its propensity for leaving its logo lit in the overnight hours, Prince believes that may be the next building that could cause a mass casualty of birds in the downtown area.

In addition to trying to reduce the lighting of downtown buildings, the local organization is also pushing for the implementation of building ordinances that were put into place for the construction of new buildings to protect birds. Similar ordinances have passed in places like Evanston and Skokie, but Prince said that the City of Chicago has been slow to enforce requirements for new buildings being built.

A new sustainability plan that is set to go into effect in 2024 includes protection measures and requirements. However, the time that has passed since the plan began to take shape has allowed for thousands of birds to be injured or killed in recent years.

The awareness of bird casualties has grown in recent years. The Chicago-area organization is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and she says that when the group first went out with nets to collect dead or injured birds, area residents didn’t understand its mission.

“We’ve been able to touch a lot of people to appreciate these birds,” Prince told Patch. “These are people who would have never been a bird-watcher or who would have been aware of what was happening around are now learning and hopefully supporting our cause to get protections (for birds) in.”