Winged Incident

When I worked in downtown DC, a new building opened just around the corner, a marvel of tall reflective surface mirroring everything at each angle. I believe it was at the corner or 14th and Massachusetts Avenues and while I don't remember exactly which agency was housed there, I'm pretty sure it was some kind of nature conservancy group. Within a few months of the building's opening, complaints were coming from a wide array of sources. Dead birds were piling up around it. The problem was that the birds couldn't tell the building wasn't just space; they flew into it at high velocity and dropped to the ground. At some point afterwards, the building was reconfigured to be less reflective.

I was reminded of this tonight because as my son and I sat in the living room, a tiny bird flew into the dining room window -- hard. We both jumped up to see what happened. The little bird lay outside on the ground below the window. He didn't look well. He was on his side and not moving. Then, as we watched, he righted himself. His left wing looked off-kilter and his beak wasn't quite right. Still, he was alive and more or less upright. Suddenly, the nearest tree was alive with other birds like him, chirping and cheering him on. We went away from the window, not wanting to distract the little bird or his friends. About ten minutes later, I looked out and the bird was in the same spot. His wing looked less twisted and he seemed to have gotten his beak together. I was worried, though, that if he didn't fly away, a predator might get him (and I considered my pets to be prime candidates). So off I trudged through the rain to save the bird. However, when I got there I couldn't find him. The sound of the door sliding open must have spurred him into action. All his little friends had gone too, probably joining the stunned guy in a celebration of life after his near-death experience.