The skies over Chicago have been busy this week with birds heading south for the winter.
Birdcast, a migration forecasting site run by scientists at Cornell, the University of Illinois and other universities, estimates 10.7 million birds flew through Chicago between sunset Wednesday and sunrise Thursday.
Migration typically starts about 30 minutes after the sun goes down.
Annette Price, director of Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, told WBBM she has six pages of phone calls from people reporting dead or injured birds.
She says they’re hearing about a lot of thrushes and warblers that have been trying to find a place to rest after flying all night from Canada or states north of us.
She and other volunteers who document collisions and collect wounded birds for rehabilitation want the city to require all new buildings use bird-friendly designs.
Chicago Animal Care and Control is encouraging owners of homes and buildings to turn off unnecessary exterior lights at night and close blinds or curtains this week so the winged visitors are not drawn to windows.
