More New York City skyscrapers are turning their lights off this fall in an effort to save the lives of migrating birds who might crash into them while on their way to warmer climes.
Glenn Phillips, the executive director of New York City Audubon, said a half-dozen landmark skyscrapers, including the Time Warner Center, Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Building, will sign on to a plan to turn off their lights at midnight. Audubon has sponsored the program since 2005, but this year has garnered the most interest, Mr. Phillips said.
Most migrating birds fly through the city between 2 and 4 a.m., and Audubon hopes that the dimmed lights will keep the birds from plowing into the buildings, a problem of each migratory season that leaves thousands of birds dead. The initiative runs from Sept. 1 to Nov. 1, the main fall migratory season.
The birds are drawn in by the glow of the city and are unable to see the miles of concrete and glass stretching into the sky, Mr. Phillips said.
“It’s not an everyday occurrence,” he said. “For the one night of the week when conditions are just right or just wrong, it can be quite deadly.”
Birders do a census of migrating birds from the observation deck of the Empire State Building.
Overcast skies and artificial lighting make for a deadly combination for the birds, who become blinded and confused. Some buildings are more lethal than others, Mr. Phillips said, counting the Time Warner Center’s mammoth glass structure among the deadliest.
Mr. Phillips said that collision with manmade structures is one of the chief reasons that most of the species that migrate through North America are declining. In two migratory seasons, Audubon counted 90,000 birds who were killed in collisions with buildings in New York City.
Other participants are the Bank of America building and The New York Times Building, one of the tallest glass structures in the city.
And no, the heightened response has nothing to do with the city’s geese problem.
“When I groan about the Canada geese,” Mr. Phillips said, “it’s because this is way more of an important story about conservation than the geese.”
Birders do a census of migrating birds from the observation deck of the Empire State Building.
