Reports of bird deaths soar as Queens residents take in nature from home

Hundreds of thousands of bird die after slamming into buildings in New York City each year. Photo by Aaron Tremper

By Aaron Tremper

When Marty Keating found six dead birds at his Belle Harbor home in late October, he posted photos on Facebook. More than 100 neighbors chimed in with their own accounts.

Some shared photos of decapitated birds found along the peninsula, others described the unfortunate fowls that slammed into their window panes and dropped dead to the ground. 

“I almost needed a sedative today,” said Eileen Maloney, a Rockaways resident who responded to Keating’s post. “About eight birds nailed the larger windows.” 

Reports of dead or injured birds have spiked during the pandemic — likely a result of more people stuck at home during the pandemic, said Tristan Higginbotham, a wildlife rehabilitator at the Wild Bird Fund.

“We definitely got more than we usually do,” said Higginbotham as she looked at data from D-bird, a database that collects reports of dead birds from New Yorkers. “This is the most we've ever gotten, and also the record number of intakes we've ever gotten.”

As hundreds of species started making their way along the stretch of continental coastline known as the Atlantic Flyway, the number of patients admitted to the Wild Bird Fund peaked during October. On Oct. 2 alone, the Wild Bird Fund took in 113 migrators, all of them maimed in window collisions.

Higginbotham said she suspects people have begun noticing the nature around them — including the number of dead birds — because they are at home as a result of COVID-19 restrictions or because they have lost their jobs. 

According to NYC Audubon’s Advocacy and Outreach Manager, Molly Adams, anywhere from 90,000 to 230,000 birds die from collisions each year in New York City. And it's not just Manhattan skyscrapers that are to blame. 

“People assume that this is just like a skyscraper issue in New York City, or city issue,” Adams said. “But around 50 percent of collisions happen on single-family homes in the suburbs.”

While most of the collision data in D-bird comes from Manhattan, Adams says that the trend likely comes from the high number of people commuting by foot.

“That’s where most people are walking the streets, especially in the mornings, and are seeing these collisions,” says Adams. “But it's absolutely happening throughout the five boroughs, in the Rockaways, near Jamaica Bay.” 

It’s not just clear glass windows leading to bird fatalities, though. Any surface reflecting the sky or vegetation can lead to head-on collisions. Bus terminal glass, car windows, and even wet asphalt — in the case of common loons mistaking recent rainfall for bodies of water — have led to injured birds throughout the area, she said.

Phyllis Tseng, a Wild Bird Fund rehabilitation expert, said birds dazed from a collision may wind up in a second collision if startled by a person trying to catch them. It’s not unusual for Tseng to see multiple instances of trauma in her patients.

“Most of their injuries have to do with their eyes,” Tseng said. “Their eyes just rupture or they get corneal ulcers. Some of them get broken jaws.”

Preventing collisions is key to helping birds during their fall migration, experts say.

In October, Brooklyn Bird Fund raised money for the installation of bird safe film at Jamaica Bay’s Salt Marsh Nature Center. The bird-safe material, supplied by the Toronto-based company Feather Friendly, features a spotted adhesive to signal the presence of glass to migrating birds.

The installation is one of several attempts to aid migratory birds passing through the area. A city law that took effect in December 2020 requires all windows below 75 feet to include markings that warn birds. 

For Higginbotham, taking steps to protect New York’s migratory birds is a crucial part of preserving the diversity of Jamaica Bay, a refuge that is home to over 300 bird species.

“I'm not sure what the solution is other than just educating the public on how important these birds are to our greater ecological systems and how we can easily lose them at any moment,” said Higginbotham. “So every bird matters.”