Nearly 1,000 migrating songbirds perish after crashing into windows at Chicago exhibition hall

By TODD RICHMOND
Associated Press

Almost 1,000 migrating songbirds have perished after smashing into windows at an exhibition center on Chicago’s lakefront. According to officials at the Chicago Field Museum, 964 birds were found dead Thursday at the McCormick Place Lakeside Center. David Willard, the museum’s collections manager emeritus, says the most dead birds anyone has found at one time at the center in the last 40 years was around 265. Experts say conditions were optimal for songbirds to launch their annual fall nocturnal migration to Central America on Wednesday evening. Pre-dawn rain pushed them down into the city, where they became confused by the center’s lights.