Early-morning ROM-goers were greeted with an eerie treat on Wednesday-2,000 dead birds, arranged in neat rows by type, 89 species in all. All died after striking Toronto’s downtown office buildings last fall, and were collected by volunteers. “This is a very powerful way to send a message to people,” said Michael Mesure, executive director of the Fatal Light Bird Awareness Program (FLAP), which put on the grim display.
Mesure said that covering office building windows with a thin film, making them opaque to UV-seeing birds, would greatly decrease bird strikes in the downtown core. FLAP hails a city committee report, adopted in January, stating that the needs of migratory birds must be considered in reviewing building proposals. That report also recommended a program to entice property owners in the area to the south of Bloor Street, west of Jarvis Street, and east of University Avenue, to shut off lights at night during fall and spring migration seasons.
One of FLAP’s volunteer bird handlers, Richard Joos (left), a doctoral candidate in the department of forestry, pointed out that most people can’t fathom the volume of bird air-traffic in the Golden Horseshoe region. Using the radar imaging system at Buffalo international airport, Joos has calculated that on a single night in May, as many as 21 million birds cross an imaginary line connecting Toronto and Hamilton.
Along with tall buildings, storms, predation, and exhaustion all take an enormous toll on migratory birds. In one such species, the blackpoll warbler, only half the individuals survive their springtime trek. “Have you ever thought about being that big,” he said, extending an opened fist, “and flying from north-east North America to Venezuela?”
-Mike Ghenu
