Long-awaited Chicago policy doesn't do enough to protect migrating birds, advocates say

During a walk through the Loop, she pulled out her phone to show an array of birds, including an injured meadowlark and a deceased northern flicker with a spotted belly and bright yellow feathers on the undersides of its wings.

The losses come at a time of growing concern about North American birds, which are in the midst of a “staggering” population decline, according to a widely quoted 2019 study in the journal Science.

The study found a net loss of 2.9 billion birds since 1970, a 29% population decline.

A wide range of threats were cited in the study, including habitat loss, agricultural practices, coastal disturbances, climate change and deaths due to human activity, a category that includes collisions with buildings.

Through the years, Chicago has made some major efforts on behalf of the tiny visitors, including a seasonal late-night lights-out program.

Prince’s group patrols a high-risk section of downtown Chicago during spring and fall migration, rescuing birds as well as providing casualty counts.

The white-throated sparrow that Prince spotted on a grate was easy to catch: She came up behind him with a net, then gently placed him in a brown paper bag for transfer to the Willowbrook Wildlife Center.

He didn’t seem harmed, just dazed, Prince said, and he was very likely to recover and be released back into the wild.

Despite such success stories, bird advocates say that the transparent and reflective surfaces of Chicago buildings, as well as certain gratings and landscape and lighting practices, continue to create peril.

Advocates began pushing the city for bird-safe building design measures in 2016, with early efforts focusing on an ordinance.

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