"While more work needs to be done to determine the full extent of the problem, researchers have documented increasing numbers of bird deaths associated with towers across the country. The Service has long worked with the electric utility and wind generation industries to help solve bird collision and electrocution problems, and wed like to forge a similar partnership with the communications industry," said Acting Fish and Wildlife Service Director John Rogers.
Researchers have observed bird kills at communications towers for decades, with one Service estimate in the 1970s placing the number of birds killed at 1.4 million birds per year. That estimate was based on the 1,100 tall towers then in existence. Today, there are nearly 49,000 towers greater than 200 feet in height, and industry reports indicate there may be as many as 100,000 new towers built in the next decade. Due to present Federal Communication Commission mandates to digitize all television stations by 2003, at least 1,000 of these new towers will exceed 0.2 miles in height, creating a potentially serious threat to birds.
Scientists believe that more than 4 million birds are currently being killed every year in North America in collisions with communications towers, but more research needs to be done to document the full extent of the problem and to explore ways to minimize deaths.
Towers pose a special danger to some 350 species of night-migrating songbirds, especially on foggy nights with low visibility and few clouds. For some reason, birds become attracted to towers with pilot warning lights, required by the Federal Aviation Administration for all towers taller than 200 feet. Red pulsating lights attract birds more than do white strobes
"The birds seem confused by the lights, abandoning their reliance on the stars or their own internal compasses. Spiralling aimlessly around the towers, they collide with guy wires, the towers themselves, other birds or the ground," said Dr. Albert Manville, Service wildlife biologist and co-chair of the Cornell Workshop on Avian Mortality at Communication Towers.
A kill of as many as 10,000 Lapland Longsprurs was documented at 3 towers and a gas pumping station in western Kansas last year.
"Regarding the big picture, we are most concerned about the cumulative impacts of all towers on birds, combined with all other things that kill them
