The Expert's Guide to Helping Injured Birds During the Fall Migration

"Sometimes you can actually see the bird’s outline, feathers and all,” says Robert Mulvihill, an ornithologist for the National Aviary, while walking the streets of Pittsburgh looking for fall migrants that had collided with buildings the night before. "The reflection is pretty bad here," he says, as the morning traffic creates a wall of noise behind us. "You can see the trees reflected in the glass? The birds think that’s what they’re flying to."

Fortunately, Mulvihill doesn’t find any dead or injured birds on this morning’s walk, possibly because heavy storms the night before prevented many migrating birds from flying. But that doesn’t mean all is well. Up to 3.5 billion birds die each year after collisions with glass in the United States alone.

Billions of birds wing their way across North America each spring and fall during their seasonal migrations. While they face threats like not finding enough food to fuel their journeys, far and away the biggest risks are buildings, which they collide into, and domestic cats, which predate them. The good news is that the experts say there are, actually, quite a few things you can do to help our feathered friends make it to their destinations.

Not every bird that strikes a pane of glass will die, says Mulvihill. “Some might bounce off and fly away.” But for the ones that are injured “the signs [of hitting a window] can be pretty obvious,” says Katie Kefalos, director of wildlife rehabilitation for the Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh. “If the bird is twitching, bleeding, or has signs of a concussion, then you know the animal needs help.”

If you find an injured bird, first put on a pair of gloves to protect yourself from any pathogens it might be carrying. Then cover the animal in a soft, light towel and place it inside a cardboard box with holes punched into the top for airflow. Take care not to handle the animal more than you have to, which helps keep the animal’s stress to a minimum. Keep the box in a dark, quiet place until you can connect with a licensed wildlife rehabber in your area. (Availability may vary by area, but some organizations, such as Animal Help Now, serve as a resource for helping people find experts nearby.)

While it’s in your care, it’s important to not try to feed or water the bird, because doing so could cause the animal to aspirate, causing more harm. Nor should you try to give it medical treatment, as this is best left to professionals.

While the fall migration influx isn’t as overwhelming as the spring, which carries with it an additional flood of nestlings toppled out of the treetops, Kefalos says any time massive amounts of birds are on the move, there’s a heightened risk of collisions with glass. But there are also a variety of decals and coatings for windows now that are low-cost, easy-to-install options that actually help birds avoid windowpanes. “These are really simple things that really do make a difference,” says Kefalos.

Of course, it’s not just glass. Migration also brings many different kinds of birds into range of backyard predators. “Cat attacks, unfortunately, are a very common reason why animals are brought in,” she says. Birds that survive cat attacks also have a very low rate of recovery because their wounds often get infected.

The best and easiest way for people to help reduce cat attacks on birds is by simply keeping their pets indoors.

Another route involves lighting. Why birds choose to stopover in urban and suburban areas in the first place, as opposed to more natural landscapes, is linked to light pollution, says Mulvihill. “I use the moth-to-a-flame analogy,” he says. “When they’re coming down to rest after a night’s migration, they’re being drawn into areas that have lots of lights.”

This is why “Lights Out” initiatives that encourage people and businesses to turn off or even reduce any lights they have on at night during a migration can make a big impact. This goes for single-family homes as well as skyscrapers. “If you turn the lights off, they’ll typically fly right over that area,” says Mulvihill.

Protecting birds during their migrations has an added benefit: Preserving them for backyard birdwatching, which can yield surprising sightings. Researchers recently revealed that many bird species appear to have buddies—different species that they tend to be found flying or feeding with during migration periods.

“There’s an incredible diversity of birds out there during migration season,” says Nick Liadis, an avian conservation biologist, who runs a bird-banding (i.e. tracking) project that samples birds across rural, suburban, and urban sites. “We’re catching all of these things that people think would only be found in pristine ecosystems.”  Even in an urban park, “we’re catching Cape May warblers, golden wing warblers, and Connecticut warblers.”

Go outside just before dawn and listen, says Mulvihill, and you might even just “beef up your backyard list by a factor of three or four. Because so many things are vocalizing as they’re going overhead. Not just songbirds, but herons, and rails, and all kinds of weird things.”

For her part, Kefalos says the most common bird brought into their center is the American robin, but they also get unusual species, too, such as a yellow-crowned night heron that apparently got blown off course and showed up a few years ago in poor condition.

Unfortunately, 90 percent of the animals she sees are in bad shape because of humans. The good news is that Kefalos says her organization is sitting at a release rate of 79 percent this year. “They’re almost never coming in for a natural reason,” she says. “And I do think that we have a responsibility to fix that.”