Trapped Birds Result In Five Suspensions of 9/11 Light Tribute

[Donna]

Animal Planet is reporting that the two bright columns of light shone at Ground Zero on September 11 (which have been shown every year since 2002) had a damaging effect on birds in the midst of their fall migration, as more than 10,000 birds flew in the light and “got trapped,� unable to fly away. The New York City Audubon was monitoring the situation and whenever they noted a “gathering of helpless birds,� they would ask the Municipal Art Society to turn off the beams.

    “There were huge numbers of birds flying through and large numbers did have difficulty navigating out of the beams,â€� John Rowden of the Audubon said. “Through the course of the night we shut the lights off five times for approximately 20 minutes each time, which allowed the birds to clear out (and then new birds moving through would accumulate). The Municipal Arts Society were very supportive of our goals of minimizing risk to migratory birdsâ€�


According to Animal Planet, the migrating birds were in danger of “depleting crucial fat stores by flying endlessly in the light beams.� The last time this was an issue (i.e. the last time weather patterns had large number of birds traveling through the city on 9/11) was in 2004.

[Bobbie Ireland]

Oh dear... best intentions...

[Carol P.]

Thank goodness the NYC Audubon was there to monitor the situation and have the lights turned off when needed!   

[MAK]

    Isn't that something?  Amazing stuff!   

[jeanne]

Ok,  I may have to walk around like this but I don't understand how they got stuck in the light.  Is it that they are flying in it and don't know how to fly out? I don't know how thick the light is so no sure how they wouldn't fly in light and darkness

[Carol P.]

Ok,  I may have to walk around like this but I don't understand how they got stuck in the light.  Is it that they are flying in it and don't know how to fly out? I don't know how thick the light is so no sure how they wouldn't fly in light and darkness

Not sure what happened with these lights.  But when I was at the first Bill's Superbowl way back when in Tampa, Florida, they released doves at one point from the field.  It was dark outside the stadium lights and the doves flew around confused, landing on people that were watching the game.  Most, if not all would not fly out of the stadium into the darkness.  Many of them ended up on the light towers, hopefully to fly off safely at first light.  I really felt bad for them and angry at the idiots (my opinion) that released them at night in a lighted stadium.   

[Dumpsterkitty]

Ok,  I may have to walk around like this but I don't understand how they got stuck in the light.  Is it that they are flying in it and don't know how to fly out? I don't know how thick the light is so no sure how they wouldn't fly in light and darkness

This particular light display is so bright the light almost appears solid.  I think the high contrast between the light beams and the surrounding darkness confuses the birds into thinking the dark is actually a solid wall, so they just keep flying around "inside".  Probably something similar with the stadium lights Carol experienced. 

[Dumpsterkitty]

Found pictures, video and a link about this at Birdchick



photo by John DeGuzman

Apparently, there's no consensus as to why the birds get stuck...I'll keep hunting...