CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- For more than 25 years Chicago has encouraged its skyscrapers to turn off their exterior lights in order to save birds. Now, a new study using decades of data from McCormick Place finds turning off more inside building lights would save millions of migrating birds.
The Field Museum has been collecting and tagging birds that have died after flying into the windows of McCormick Place East for more than 40 years. The collection includes some 40,000 migratory birds, and has inspired the city’s Lights Out program.
A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences uses that data in the most in-depth review of lighting patterns and migratory.
Field Museum Senior Conservation Ecologist and Ornithologist Doug Stotz said a study found when half of the convention center’s lights were turned off there was a 60 percent drop in bird deaths.
"What'd I say this further work does is points out that trying to reduce the indoor lighting in skyscrapers would be a good idea," Stotz said.
And he said the study is not just about McCormick Place Lakeside Center.
"If it was just McCormick Place, you know 1,000 birds each year or 2,000 birds a year would not make a big difference to group populations, but it happens all across the country," he said.
He said that adds up to between 350 million and one billion birds killed annually crashing into windows in the US.
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