The Sept. 8 story, "Ghostly bird image inspires flights of fancy," which was accompanied by a picture of a bird's impression on a window, missed the mark. The essence of this sad incident was the conflict between the natural world and modern society.
Airports have been constructed without sensitivity to the flyways of bird migration. The results are bird collisions with planes and the deaths of innocent passengers. A minute amount of research could have avoided such tragedies. There are ways to deter the nesting and gathering of birds within areas adjacent to airports without killing them. But in a fast-food world, killing is consistently the response even if long-term results remain poor.
The loss of federally migratory birds every year to windows is enormous. There are several simple solutions to save the lives of these creatures. The most direct way is simply turning off the lights in tall buildings at night. One can place hawk silhouettes on windows, and birds veer away from the glass. I have given many building owners these commercially available silhouettes, and they have never failed.
Kindness is an easier and longer-term solution than killing. But American society can't seem to see the forest from the trees on this issue. My wife and I have been federally and state-licensed bird rehabilitators for 30 years.
Buzz Alpert
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Chicago
