Commentary: Don’t ignore bird safety

1 day ago 26

With the South Padre Island Convention Center planning process well under way, project leaders are facing critical decisions about the facility’s design. Of interest are the materials being used for the building’s exterior — particularly outdoor lighting and glass used for the façade.

Given South Padre Island’s positioning as a coastal city, a natural bird habitat and an ecotourism engine, Audubon Texas is calling for the installation of bird-friendly glass and lighting to preserve and protect the region’s bird populations.

Peak fall migration is currently in full swing, with millions of birds traversing our state daily. In the last few weeks alone, more than 85 million birds are estimated to have flown through South Texas, with countless more anticipated over the next several weeks.

Unfortunately, birds face a host of threats on their twice-annual journey between southern and northern latitudes as they move to breeding habitats in warmer months and to winter habitats in the colder months. Aside from natural threats like predators, birds face two major hazards caused by humans — light pollution and non-bird-friendly glass. And Texas is no stranger to the their devastating effects.

Houston and Dallas are the second and third deadliest bird collision cities in the country, with San Antonio marking the third Texas city among the top ten nationally. Up the coast in Galveston, a massive building collision in 2017 left more than 400 birds dead after becoming disoriented in a storm and slamming into a downtown building. And in cities across the state, countless birds are lost annually due to building collisions — all contributing to the significant decline of bird populations across the Americas for the last several decades.

In addition to the looming ecological risks, failing to act could also jeopardize the region’s ecotourism economy. Texas reaps significant economic benefit from birding, with an estimated $1.8 billion impact annually. And bird watchers from around the globe visit our state to enjoy our coastal areas and wetlands that are home to some of the world’s most unique and majestic bird species.

But increasing development continues to disrupt these sensitive areas, making it harder for birds to live, nest and migrate. These devastating challenges provide a window of opportunity for change — one that can’t afford to be squandered in constructing the South Padre Island Convention Center.

Seizing this moment means making simple but consequential decisions to ensure the convention center realizes its full economic potential without further compromising our precious natural resources. Developers should utilize bird-friendly glass wherever possible, which has shown to significantly decrease bird strikes. Installing dark-skies friendly outdoor lighting can also decrease the disorienting effects of improperly illuminated building exteriors. And landscaping with native and bird-friendly plants can help restore some of the habitat that will be lost by the center’s construction.

Collectively, these measures go a long way toward decreasing the harmful effects of new development while fostering wildlife and their habitat.

No convention group wants to happen upon a large group of dead birds outside their meeting place. But without taking appropriate measures to ensure the South Padre Island Convention Center is bird-friendly, this situation is entirely possible. Just look to the McCormick Place Lakeside Center in Chicago, which made national news headlines in October 2023 for a one-night collision event that killed 1,000 migrating birds. Due to this deadly impact, McCormick Place retrofitted the glass with bird-collision deterrence film.

While no measures can absolutely guarantee that bird strikes won’t happen, we shouldn’t stop short of trying our best to do right by the birds that do immeasurable good for us every day. We urge city leaders, developers and other decision makers to invest in the resources and materials needed to make the South Padre Island Convention Center a bird-friendly facility. And we stand ready to provide tools and resources needed to make this vision a reality and to help ensure the millions of visitors who come to this region annually can continue to enjoy all that makes South Padre Island a true gem of our state.

Lisa Gonzalez is vice president and executive director of Audubon Texas, based in Austin.