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'Glass is lethal': Death of Flaco renews calls to make NYC's buildings safer for birds
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Feb 25, 2024
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By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Feb 25, 2024
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Flaco the owl was one of an estimated 250,000 birds to die each year by crashing into a New York City building — but conservationists say property owners can easily protect our feathered friends from an untimely death.
The famous fowl's death reportedly came when he fatally flew into a building on West 89th Street on Friday evening. The tragedy highlights the need for bird-proof windows across the five boroughs, said Dr. Dustin Partridge, the director of conservation and science at the New York City Audubon.
“It’s currently one of the biggest threats that birds face,” Partridge said on WNYC’s Weekend Edition Sunday morning. “That light that comes from the city at night is very attractive to birds. It pulls birds in. They change their flight path and move towards the city.”
Birds often mistake the reflection of glass windows on skyscrapers for the horizon during the night and early sunrise, he said. As they approach the light, they collide with the building’s glass at full speed and most die on impact.
Partridge said nearly a billion birds die by crashing into buildings across the country every year — but New York City is a particular hotspot.
“Some of them collide due to that light at night, others are stuck as the sun comes up and they are within this kind of matrix of glass and concrete,” Partridge said. “Glass is lethal.”
The NYC Audubon advocated for the passage of Local Law 15 in 2020, dubbed the “bird-friendly materials bill,” which requires all buildings constructed after January 2021 to install “bird safe” glass on 90% of the facade of the lower 75 feet of a building, where Partridge says is the most common occurrence of bird collisions. The special glass has etched patterns which reduce window reflections that are confusing to birds, he said.
Partridge suggested New Yorkers turn off the lights in their apartment during bird migration periods — April and May in the spring and August to mid-November for the fall — or have their lighting fixtures face downwards instead of towards their windows.
Building owners can also apply a special film or sticker onto their windows that help break up reflections, he said.
Those features may have been able to prevent the death of Flaco, who stole the hearts of New Yorkers after vandals freed him from his enclosure at the Central Park Zoo last February. He roamed Manhattan for more than a year, becoming a symbol for resiliency. A memorial was held in his honor at Central Park on Saturday
Tagged
new york city
public safety
manhattan
parks
Ramsey Khalifeh
Ramsey Khalifeh is a transportation reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the largest transit system in the country. He was previously a general assignment reporter at Gothamist and worked on the Boston Globe's metro and copy desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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