NYC Audubon

The World Trade Center viewed from NJ August 28, 2001 at 6:03AM

Since the World Trade Center first opened birders noticed it was a magnet
for migrating birds. Our love of New York City made us determined to try to
make the city safer for migrating birds. From 1997 to the morning of
September 11th 2001 Project Safe Flight’s main focus was the World
Trade Center and the World Financial Center. The lessons learned from the World Trade Center need to be incorporated into today’s planning if we are to avoid thousands of bird kills annually.

                What was it was like when the towers stood?
                What is it like today?
                What will happen if planning does not address this issue?

Early dawn patrols confirmed that the centers were death traps for many
species of migrating birds. The toll tended to be a lot higher on dark nights.
The lit towers attracted birds, which tended to circle the light. Eventually setting
down in lower Manhattan, forest birds awoke surrounded by reflective glass. Each
dawn brought many collisions. Birds that did not die from the initial collision stood
or lay stunned. These injured birds were in danger of being trampled or swept up by the maintenance crew.

The World Trade Center viewed from NJ May 26, 2001 at 11:03PM

Volunteers constantly reported seeing injured birds repeatedly hitting the same window completely confused. Between April 1997 and May 2001 with just one or some times two volunteers making very patchy dawn patrols only a tiny percent of the collisions were documented.

1008 birds were found dead at the World Trade Center

501 birds were found dead at the World Financial Center

519 birds were found injured at the World Trade Center

219 birds were found injured at the World Financial Center

The World Trade Center viewed from NJ June 12, 2001 at 2:00AM

Project Safe Flight worked the problem by identifying the worst windows and got the Port Authority to put up netting which led to fewer birds found. Project Safe Flight had begun to use web cams to study the way the towers were lit and identify the floors most brightly lit. Contacting the tenant on those floors we meet with enthusiastic response. The towers were darkening. Project Safe Flight was learning how a few simple techniques could save many birds' lives.

September 11th 2001, Project Safe Flight had volunteers patrolling the World Trade Center. Thankfully no volunteers were killed but we were left too devastated to continue that fall.

Since the spring of 2002 we slowly started to pull back together. Some of the early morning sweepers we talked with said they were seeing fewer dead birds. Our unscientific tally at the World Financial Center was also sharply down.

	Spring 2001	Spring 2002	Fall 2000	Fall 2002
World Financial Center	90	28	205	98

Other lower Manhattan locations also seemed to show a sharp drop in casualties. This is consistent with the experience of others cities. The Chicago Field Museum after years of collecting birds noticed an: 83% reduction in bird window-kills when near by buildings turned off their lights. This experience confirmed the problem of lit towers with lower floors of reflective glass.

The building plans for the World Trade Center site combine lit towers above with a labyrinth of reflective glass below. This combination as currently proposed will produce a mini environmental disaster on the Eastern Flyway costing the lives of several thousand birds a year. Species already stressed will be hit hard every migration season. We believe that goals of revitalizing lower Manhattan and paying tribute to the victims of September 11th can be met without creating a death trap for already stressed species.

A few of the birds killed by windows collisions during 2000

Project Safe Flight is not saying do not build. We are trying to bring certain design strategies to the attention of the designers and people in charge. We want to make the planners aware that the World Trade Center site is located on the Eastern Flyway one of the world's great migration paths taken by millions of birds twice a year. Now is the time to take these facts into consideration.