Hi all, Researchers estimate that between 100 million and 1 billion birds are killed each year from collisions with buildings in the United States. This is believed to be one of the factors that has led to a nearly 30% decline in North American birds since 1970. According to research by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Chicago is one of the most dangerous cities for migrating birds. Within Chicago, the building that was known to be the most lethal was McCormick Place’s Lakeside Center. Dr. David Willard, an ornithologist at the Field Museum in Chicago, had heard that birds were striking the windows of the conference center, so one morning in 1978, before work, he went to check it out. He found two dead birds. A few years later, in 1982, he started monitoring bird collisions every day at McCormick Place and has continued doing so through 2024. In total, Dr. Willard and his colleagues have recorded 41,789 birds killed by the windows at McCormick. As the years passed and the death toll increased, advocates pushed for changes. McCormick managers tried a few different interventions: In the 1980s, strips of netting. In the 1990s, bird-of-prey calls and silhouettes. They even created a nine-acre rooftop park of native prairie and woodlands to draw the birds away from the windows. Despite these measures, hundreds of birds died during spring and fall migrations. Then, on October 5, 2023, Dr. Willard was at McCormick for his daily inspection and stumbled across hundreds of dead and dying birds along the walkway. Overwhelmed by the sheer volume, he contacted a colleague for help. “They were continuing to crash as we were picking them up,” Dr. Willard recalled. He and his colleague walked away with around 975 dead birds bulging out of plastic bags. News of this tragedy ricocheted around the world, and the managers at McCormick met with public outrage unlike anything they had ever seen. The American Bird Conservancy took out a full-page ad in the Chicago Tribune that read, “One Night. One Building. 1,000 Birds Dead.” People began to question what they could do so that this would never happen again. Drawing on research from an ornithologist based out of Pennsylvania, the managers at McCormick decided that the glass needed a pattern over its entire surface. The pattern has opaque dots that are no more than two inches apart, so that even a tiny hummingbird would be prevented from darting through. The treatment cost $1.2 million and was paid for by the state of Illinois. The birds now perceive the glass, and the results are impressive. During fall migration, deaths had been reduced by around 95% when compared with the two previous autumns. Across North America, with Toronto being a leader, there are a growing number of bird-friendly policies being adopted by building managers that are helping make cities safer for birds. And Feather Friendly, the company that manufactures the window dots, has had people emailing them saying that they want what McCormick Place has on their windows.
This is a success story that came about through trial and error. The managers at McCormick Place tried a few different methods before landing on the window dots. It also took a crisis point before the best solution was found. In your programming, remember that deeply understanding the environmental problem you are faced with will put you in a position to find strategies and solutions to the problem. That deep understanding usually comes about through research, whether that is barrier and benefit research or research on the target audience’s needs and wants. Inadequate research is one of the top reasons why social marketing programs fail. Know your target audience well, along with the problem they are facing, and you will have a better chance of program success. Research matters. To read more about Feather Friendly’s work at McCormick Place, click here.
This is a success story that came about through trial and error. The managers at McCormick Place tried a few different methods before landing on the window dots. It also took a crisis point before the best solution was found. In your programming, remember that deeply understanding the environmental problem you are faced with will put you in a position to find strategies and solutions to the problem. That deep understanding usually comes about through research, whether that is barrier and benefit research or research on the target audience’s needs and wants. Inadequate research is one of the top reasons why social marketing programs fail. Know your target audience well, along with the problem they are facing, and you will have a better chance of program success. Research matters. To read more about Feather Friendly’s work at McCormick Place, click here.
