I will say from the beginning that I don't accept the current explanation. There are multiple that nearly 1,000 birds died in just 1 night after colliding with a building in Illinois. To call this a mystery is an understatement.

96.7 The Eagle logo
Get our free mobile app

I've confirmed this is true from multiple sources including The Smithsonian Magazine and Boing Boing. The stories say that the count is currently around 1,000 for birds that dropped dead after colliding with the McCormick Place (Chicago Convention Center) in Chicago. Does this look like a big skyscraper to you?

Google Maps Street View
Google Maps Street View
loading...

What killed all the birds in 1 night in Chicago?

The Smithsonian Magazine report says officials say "light pollution". Something fishy is going on. They admit that a normal night will sadly see 10 to 15 birds colliding with the building. It normally takes a year for that many birds to perish against that building so I'm not accepting "light pollution" as the reason for this abnormality.

Chicago Bird Collision Monitors on Twitter/X confirmed the stories are true.

I did some digging and I understand that it's true that migrating birds use stars for navigation and buildings that reflect artificial light can confuse them. My question is why hasn't this happened in the past then? Forgive me for turning to fictional Hollywood for an answer, the I can't help but remember the plot in the movie The Core where birds went crazy and started colliding with buildings when the Earth's magnetic field started failing.

Oh, by the way, the Scientific American mentioned earlier this year that the Earth's core might be slowing down, so there's that.

Sound crazy? Then give me a better explanation for this massive amount of bird deaths other than light pollution then.

LOOK: Most Commonly Seen Birds in Missouri

Stacker compiled a list of the most common birds seen in Missouri from Project FeederWatch.

Gallery Credit: Stacker