Skip to main content
MENU
Silhouetted bird again a dark sky

Published September 12, 2024

Big Nights & Bird Strikes

Well over 1 MILLION birds passed over Rhode Island on the evening of September 10-11, 2024. The following morning, Audubon Director of Avian Research Dr. Charles Clarkson hit the streets in Downtown Providence to see how these birds fared.

Throughout a 2.5-mile loop, he found four dead birds and a handful of others injured.

Newly published research shows that the current data on bird deaths due to window collisions are likely underestimated: many injured or stunned birds can fly away from their collision site and/or are taken to wildlife rehabbers, but then later die and are not necessarily included in window-collision mortality data. The new estimate is “…well over 1 billion birds…” in the United States alone.

Birds on the Move: More "Big Nights" Are Coming
BirdCast is estimating large migration numbers for Friday and Saturday night – and you can help birds pass safely through by:

  • turning off all non-essential lighting from 11:00 pm until 6:00 am
  • keeping your cats indoors
  • and putting bird-strike decals on your windows.

There are other things you can do too– read more tips for helping birds during migration!

Latest Stories on the Blog

While humans may take their cozy homes for granted when winter sets in, the strategies that wildlife have developed to cope with the plunging temperatures, biting wind and lack of food are as creative and innovative as they are necessary.

Join naturalists from the Audubon Society of Rhode Island and the Providence Parks Urban Wildlife for a FREE guided bird walk on Monday, December 30, from 9:30-10:30 am at the Save the Bay campus in Providence. Get the details, here!

Being outside, sitting quietly, lends itself to seeing more of what happens in nature. Learn how to tune into signs that a raptor may be around, in this edition of Newport This Week's Nature in the Neighborhood, written by Audubon Senior Director of Education Lauren Parmelee!