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 Patridge, 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 Patridge 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…
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