McCormick Place completes installation of bird-safe window film in time for 2024 migration season

CHICAGO — Migrating birds will have a safer flight around the McCormick Place Lakeside Center this year and beyond.

Last year, around a thousand migrating songbirds died over a single night on Oct. 4-5 after flying into the windows of McCormick Place, bringing to light a major aviary problem caused by Chicago’s iconic skyline, and that of other large cities.

So the owners of McCormick Place, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA), took proactive steps to address the problem and mitigate bird collisions during migration season.

Those measures are in full effect now, in time for the 2024 migration season.

In a press release this week, MPEA announced that it has completed the installation of bird-safe window film at McCormick Place. The film, MPEA says, was installed in response to last year’s mass collision event.

What happened?

According to experts, the mass collision last October was caused by a confluence of circumstances. First, weather conditions were ripe for a large wave of songbirds to migrate south that night over Chicago. So the birds swept south over the city, following the Lake Michigan shoreline.

But a pre-dawn rain forced the birds to lower altitudes, where they found McCormick Place’s lights on. According to the Chicago Field Museum’s count, 964 birds died in the collision.

David Willard, a retired bird division collections manager at the Field Museum, had been checking the McCormick Center grounds for dead birds for 40 years. He said last year’s count was about 700 more than he’d ever found there at any point.

MPEA took immediate action, it says, by reaffirming its commitment to the Lights Out Program , a national initiative by the National Audubon Society to help provide safe passage to migrating birds. The program aims to convince building owners and managers to turn off excess lighting during months when migrating birds are flying overhead.

But MPEA took an additional course of action at McCormick Place by installing bird-safe window film.

What is it?

In its release this week, MPEA says the film is designed to help migrating birds differentiate between windows and open air.

The Associated Press reported in July, via a Chicago Tribune report, that McCormick Place began installing film etched with tinted dots on its windows in June. According to the report, which said the effort cost $1.2 million, the dots are designed to help birds distinguish between windows and nature.

MPEA said in its release that it pursued the window-film solution based on recommendations from meetings with local, national and international bird and animal advocacy groups, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Chicago Bird Collision Monitors and Never Collide.

According to MPEA, the film adheres to two football fields’ worth of windows. Crews worked throughout the summer in two shifts, five day per week, to complete installation before fall migration.

“MPEA has always strived to be a good neighbor and environmental steward, both inside and outside our campus,” Larita Clark, CEO of MPEA, said in the release. “We have long participated in the Lights Out Chicago program, but when we learned of the reported mass collision event last year, we knew that we needed to quickly make additional improvements to protect
local and migratory birds as they pass McCormick Place.”

Brian Smith, Assistant Regional Director for Migratory Birds for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Midwest Region, commended MPEA for its “rapid response to the mass collision event” last October.

“MPEA leadership was open to suggestions, and they were transparent with us as they implemented swift and significant changes to their lighting and existing windows to reduce risk to birds in future migratory seasons,” Smith said in the release.

“We hope their actions inspire others along the lakeshore, in Chicago, and throughout the entire flyway to take steps to reduce bird collisions at their facilities.”

In addition to installing the window film and its commitment to the Lights Out Program, MPEA says that after the collision event last year, it began shutting off all unnecessary external lights at McCormick Place and enacted a policy requiring drapes to be closed overnight to prevent light from escaping.

“Field Museum researchers have documented bird collisions at Lakeside Center (McCormick Place) for more than four decades, and we would expect to see a measurable reduction in those numbers this fall migration season as a result of the new window treatment and policies MPEA has enacted,” Dr. Julian Siggers, Field Museum President and CEO, said in the release.

“We look forward to continuing our work with MPEA, which will provide a model for other buildings to reduce bird collisions all over Chicago and the world.”

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV.