WGN: Interview with Steve Cochran on Bird-Safe Measures

The following interview aired on WGN Radio on May 11, 2016. A link to the interview can be found here.

Steve Cochran: Mike Quigley joins us, good morning to you sir how are you

Mike Quigley: Good Morning

SC: Alright we’ve ran out of time Congressman Quigley, either that or you got a better writer

MQ: I was just tweeting about this

SC: Okay so, tell me about the birds flying into buildings

MQ: Well we’ll access serious level. We lose about at least 300 million birds a year from collisions with glass on buildings

SC: So do we have to move the buildings?

MQ: Well some estimate that it is three times higher there. Look at night time this is a policy of how we handle this. Shutting off lights in high rises and homes are closing the blinds. At the end of the day it is how the buildings are designed and the materials they are made from. So there are simple solutions. I was just at Loyola University earlier in the week and there actually putting up reflective, different kinds of material on the back of the glass so the birds can actually see this. Because the bird just does not see the glass. So it looks like sky to them.

SC: So what is the bird doing? Is the bird trying to fly through it or seeing a reflection and attacking their reflection?

MQ: Doesn’t even see the glass. Some of these modern buildings it’s a clear path through, you see glass on the other side of the atrium. So all it sees is skies. You see all these mirrored buildings. They see sky, they don’t see at all and they are unfortunately killed all too often

SC: See I think this is apart of the problem because I think you know I got new windows in the house, love the windows. I got them a year ago and there were no bird problems before so the new glass in the window, I think I have the same thing going on

MQ: Yeah you can buy material that you can see through but the birds can see. It sticks on one side of the glass. Some people put up stain glass pieces that hang from the glass, the birds can see. Just anything that gives them some sense that it’s not just the sky they are running into.

SC: Is this birdbrain, is this where the term comes from, the term birdbrain?

MQ: From some of the friends we know.

SC: A lot of the guys you work with. Alright so there is stuff we can buy before we get back to the buildings issue not that I want to make this about me on the Steve Cochran show. Where do I buy this?

MQ: You can check on autobahn website, there’s information about what you can do. There is a Illinois autobahn so several years ago people from autobahn took me out to Mccormick place, took me out to the high rises early morning in Chicago and literally there were hundreds of dead birds on the ground.

SC: Is that right?

MQ: Yeah we passed at an ordinance at the county, so they changed the policies there and they changed the building construction from then on. It was an amazing model that several other cities have picked up and now we have a bill in Congress to do that with the GSA. We’d like to think that it sends a message to others to help spread the word. Look this doesn’t cost anything, it doesn’t cost the government anything at all but it saves millions of bird’s lives and remember about a third of the 800 bird species in the United States are endangered, threatened, or in serious decline. So there is a reason to do this beyond the fact we like how beautiful birds are.

SC: So you are saying that the high rises downtown need to turn the lights off at night?

MQ: Yeah and Chicago is actually a leader on this called lights out program. Chicago is one of the first cities in the whole country to address nighttime bird deaths. Especially during the migratory times.

SC: Well I would think to it would save the landlords money or the tenants money.

MQ: Sure it saves landlords money, saves energy, reduces pollution. It just encourages building managers to dim or turn off their lighting at night and minimize the use of bright interior lights during the migration seasons. It works wonders if people participate. It doesn’t cost any money it actually saves money and birds lives.

SC: Congressman, do you have a favorite bird?

MQ: You know you mention that, I actually spend some time out now in Beverly Shores, Indiana you got to like the woodpecker or the Blackhawk.

SC: The Blackhawk sure absolutely. Alright listen you’ve given me good advice and it’s a good thing for people to think about. Turn off your lights at night in these high rises and during the day we just need to come up with that material your talking about for these buildings to address it on a commercial level.

MQ: Yeah some of it is design, what kind of windows they purchase or if they don’t want to shut the lights off they can close the blinds at night.

SC: Because right now Congressman I’m standing in my office at home when I’m at home and I just stand in the windows going “cahh”! And that does not seem like an effective treatment.

MQ: Not as effective as the others.

SC: Alright appreciate your time, enjoyed the rest of your day.

MQ: Thank you take care.

SC: That’s Congressman Mike Quigley, so Congressman Quigley is doing the bird thing and doing the noise thing at O’Hare, what’s everybody else in Congress doing?