Michael Moynihan: Simple steps we should all follow to take birds under our wing

If you had said then that the water quality would improve to the extent that dolphins would swim almost to that spot ... credit is due to those who effected that change in the river. It is unrecognisable from the stilly greeny mess we knew back then, and it didn’t even have Patrick Kavanagh to write poetry about it.

Of course, it set me thinking. Specifically, does the city present other challenges to the natural world that we should be addressing?

We’re building upwards along the quays, for example, tall glass tower blocks. I got a shiver earlier this month reading a story in the New York Times about birds being killed in Chicago after colliding with skyscraper windows: “... the carpet of bird carcasses outside a convention center on Thursday morning shocked people who have been monitoring birds in the city for decades. At least 961 dead birds were found outside the McCormick Place Lakeside Center.”

Is this something to be aware of with more and more high-rise glass towers in Cork? I touched base with Niall Hatch of Birdwatch Ireland, who was aware of what had happened in Chicago. He sounded a reassuring note about.

“It’s been noted in North America — a lot of work has been done on this in Canada, places like Toronto.

“With Chicago, many of the birds involved would breed in the forests of Canada and then migrate south to the Caribbean, or South America.

“Many of those birds migrate at night and in America you can have large expanses of open countryside and then mega-cities, which act as navigation beacons for the birds. But in the darkness of night, the birds can slam into buildings which they can’t see, and there were particular weather conditions involved in that Chicago incident as well."

There isn’t as much data in Europe, Niall told me, pointing out that in Ireland we clearly don’t have a situation with hundreds of dead birds littering the streets because they’ve flown into buildings.

“The buildings are probably not high enough, and not as many Irish birds migrate nocturnally, apart from some species of thrush.

“That’s not to say some birds aren’t being killed, I’m sure there are, but certainly not in the same numbers.

“What is a problem in suburban areas is birds flying into house windows during the day. People often contact us about that.”

This phenomenon is not unknown to your columnist and is probably familiar to quite a few readers: the unexpected thump when a bird finds the window less accommodating than expected.

“What happens is in a conservatory, for instance, the bird may see glass on both sides and believe it can fly through. Or the window may be reflecting trees or bushes in a garden, and the bird wants to fly onto those branches.

“The way to stop this is to make the birds aware that there’s glass there, and one way is to put stickers or paint on the outside of the windows — with lines or spots no further than four inches or ten cm apart. If they’re wider then the birds believe they’ll be able to fit through the gap.

In places like Canada and Prague, you’ll see dots on the windows of office buildings — it’s part of the building code — but obviously people don’t want those kinds of markings on their windows at home.

“The way around that is birds can see ultraviolet light, which is invisible to humans, so you can get ultraviolet paint or markers for the outside of the window. That registers with the birds and stops them flying into the glass.”

Incidentally, Niall added that the Czechs are market leaders when it comes to solving these kinds of problems: “Birdwatch Ireland is a member of BirdLife International so we’re aware of work being done on this issue in the Czech Republic.

“There they found that birds were flying into glass bus shelters and being killed, so our Czech counterparts located the worst-affected areas and partnered with schools in those areas to help decorate those shelters — and that made a huge difference.”

This is more like it — the little changes that everyone can put into effect to help Irish birds. The growth in ‘No Mow May’, the campaign to stop people mowing their lawns in May to aid native plant life, benefits birds as well.

“Yes, more insects in a garden means more food for birds, particularly when butterflies and moths are around,” said Niall.

“Caterpillars are a very important source of food for birds. Having bees around shows the environment is generally healthy.

“We find in any garden setting that maximising the amount of native Irish plants makes a big difference, too. That supports native Irish insects, which helps the birds, and those plants are obviously easier to maintain because they’re native to Ireland.

“People like feeding birds in their garden as well — it was a lifeline for many in the pandemic — and that’s something we encourage as well, but if you attract more birds there’s a responsibility as well. If you have a lot of birds at a feeder there’s a risk of disease for the birds — not humans — so the feeder must be cleaned regularly.”

The garden helps, then. So does switching off your lights.

“Light pollution is an issue for birds during the breeding season,” said Niall.

“Birds are triggered to sing by certain light levels around dawn and so on — it sets off hormones which compel them to sing.

“But low-level street lighting or porch lights can mimic those natural light levels and trigger the birds, who may end up singing all night and getting exhausted. That can drastically shorten their lifespan.

“So turning off a porch light at night can help. We’re obviously not saying we shouldn’t have street lighting, those are essential, but everyone can make a difference in terms of light pollution.”

That’s the point I was coming to. Cleaning up the Lee was a major undertaking that needed large agencies to come together. It was worth it, judging by the reaction to the recent dolphin incursion, but it wasn’t something individuals could organise by themselves.

However, helping the native bird population doesn’t require that kind of broad action. As indicated by Niall Hatch, small changes and steps can make a difference, and make Cork as welcoming for birds as it is for dolphins.

For more go to birdwatchireland.ie