Linda Cames (left) volunteer and Robbie Hunsinger, founder of the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors

According to Buddhist philosophy, all living things share two common desires: to end suffering and to find happiness. Robbie Hunsinger, founder of the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors (CBCM), manages to do both by saving birds’ lives. During spring and fall migration, she can be found in the early morning hours searching Loop streets, sidewalks and plazas for birds that have been injured by accidentally flying into buildings. “There is nothing quite as rewarding as releasing one of the birds after getting it out of danger,” says Hunsinger.

Our Chicago Loop skyscrapers form a wall that interrupts a major bird migration route from North America to Central and South America and back again. Birds that migrate at night use Lake Michigan as a kind of “highway,” and unfortunately, fly smack into metropolitan Chicago where rooftop lights draw them like moths to a flame.

At a Chicago Audubon presentation Hunsinger gave at the North Park Village Nature Center on February 13, she showed a video made by fellow bird rescuer Ken Wysocki. Wysocki aimed his camera at the top of the John Hancock tower at 2:00 a.m. during migration. As he zoomed in, you could see what appear to be moths circling the building. As he continued to zoom in, it’s obvious that these “moths” were actually hundreds and hundreds of birds drawn to the light, endlessly circling the building, and many died of sheer exhaustion.

It is believed that birds use the lights of the stars and moon to help them navigate during their long journeys, and artificial lights can confuse them. Once birds get sucked into the city by rooftop lights, they face another set of deadly challenges on the ground. Lit lobbies showcasing ornamental trees and plants are the most dangerous. Because birds can’t see glass, they fly straight into windows on their way to the trees inside. Trees planted more than a few feet back from the building are also a problem because they are reflected in lobby windows, and also attract birds. It is estimated that anywhere from 100,000,000 to one billion birds are killed by accidentally flying into buildings each year in the United States.

During spring and fall migration (March 17—June 7 and August 25—October 25) Robbie spends every day answering Hotline calls for injured birds, coordinating rescues and pick-ups, and collecting birds that have been rescued so that they can be treated and taken to rehab or release spots. She also spends a few days a week getting up around 4:15 a.m. to get downtown before the morning rush hour to patrol for injured birds that have collided with Loop skyscrapers during the night and early morning. Often, Hunsinger is accompanied by one of her volunteers. Joan Bruchman, who has been a bird rescue volunteer since 2002, is a regular. She recently retired and was looking for a way to become involved with helping migrating birds when she came across a call for volunteers from Hunsinger on IBET. “It keeps me busy and I enjoy it a lot,” says Bruchman.
When an injured bird is found, it is “triaged” on the spot. Hunsinger looks for swelling or eyes that are closed or just “don’t look right,” an indication of concussion. Hunsinger received special training and has a federal sub-permit from Fellow Mortals, an animal rehabilitation center in Wisconsin that allows her to administer anti-concussion shots to birds. The shots need to be given within six to eight hours to be most effective. “The shots are literally a life saver,” says Hunsinger. “Its amazing how well they work.”

On a good day, Hunsinger and her team won't find any birds, but on bad days they can find 40 dead and 20 stunned or injured birds to treat, evaluate and hopefully release. Birds that have suffered graver injuries like fractures are driven to Willowbrook Rehabilitation Center in DuPage County or Fellow Mortals. Some go home with Hunsinger who has a special sub-permit to rehabilitate injured birds. This usually involves feeding them and letting them rest and their injuries heal.

Hunsinger officially founded the Chicago Bird Collision Monitor & Rescue Project, which now numbers about 20 volunteers, in spring 2003. Before CBCM existed, Ken Wysocki had been monitoring the Loop largely on his own. “When I asked Ken who was helping him with monitoring downtown, and he said nobody, I knew I had to help out,” said Hunsinger. Now, she counts on more than just her official volunteers to comb the area for downed birds. Doormen, commuters, security officers, building managers and custodians also alert her to particularly bad areas and even make rescues on occasion.

In addition to this downtown network, CBCM has a Hotline, a website, a database, business cards, flyers, and educational outreach programs. CBCM recently gained two important advisors: University of Illinois at Chicago assistant professor of architecture Ellen Grimes, and one of the country’s foremost experts on bird collisions, Muhlenberg College professor of biology Daniel Klem, Jr. CBCM is also the newest member of the Bird Conservation Network.
As Hunsinger describes her pre-dawn routine of checking particularly bad spots like Wacker Drive and East Randolph, you can clearly feel her sense of urgency. She only has a short period of time in which to monitor numerous sites. Once a bird is on the ground, it becomes instant food for predators like gulls and crows. “There have been times when I would have missed a bird if I got there twenty or thirty seconds later,” says Hunsinger.

Once she finds a bird, she places it in an unwaxed paper sack lined with paper towels on the bottom. On the outside of the bag, she writes the location, time and name of the building the bird crashed into, and then continues monitoring. “At some point, I have to make a choice. Do I give shots to the birds I’ve got, or keep looking for other birds?” Hunsinger asks. “There’s always a chance that there will be a whole lot of birds at a site we haven’t gotten to yet.”

Many birds simply need to be removed from danger, treated and allowed to recover in the refuge of Hunsinger’s back seat, and are able to be released a few hours later. Hunsinger releases the majority of birds she deems healthy in Grant Park, Jarvis Sanctuary or Paul Douglas Forest Preserve.

Linda Cames is one of Hunsinger’s volunteers. She says that now that her friends and co-workers know what she does, she sometimes arrives at her Loop office to find a box or bag with an injured bird inside on her desk. “I call up Robbie and she will arrange for a volunteer driver to pick the bird up at my building,” says Cames.

A major part of Hunsinger’s work involves educating building managers about the dangers their lights pose to migrating birds. The most time consuming and frustrating part of her job may be figuring out who the building manager is and getting through to them. “It can take a lot of phone calls,” she says. Hunsinger has had great success getting building managers to dim or turn off their lights, including lobby lights, during migration season. “They are really interested in helping out birds—nobody likes to come to work and see dead birds on the sidewalk,” Hunsinger says. “Usually, they don’t know that there are actually solutions to the problem, but when I start to educate them, they want to help.”

This past fall, Jim Baroni, the manager at the Blue Cross building agreed to dim his lobby lights thanks to Hunsinger’s efforts. “It really does make a huge difference in bird deaths,” she explains. One morning in fall 2002, several buildings that agreed to turn their lights off left them on by mistake, and dead birds were everywhere. The next morning, after a night of lights out, there were hardly any birds near the buildings. “There was about an 80 percent reduction in bird deaths at those buildings just because they turned their lights off that night,” says Hunsinger.

Hunsinger firmly believes that the number of bird deaths can be reduced: “I fully believe that this is a solvable problem. The more building managers we get to dim their lights, especially lobby lights, the more birds can be saved. Even encouraging people not to have plants just inside the windows can help prevent birds from crashing.”

Many birds die from striking the windows of homes and apartments. If you have plants on your windowsills, move them back from the glass or use blinds or other visual barriers. If you have a bird feeder, move it to within 5 feet of your window, or back further than 15 feet away from the glass. Dangerously placed feeders are a significant cause of bird collisions.

For more information on collision risk reduction, please visit the Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP) homepage at www.flap.org. This site has links to many solutions and products.

For more information on the CBCM please check www.birdmonitors.net. If you are interested in joining the monitors, please e-mail to info@birdmonitors.net or call 773/988-1867