BOISE, Idaho — Not necessarily known for its size, the Joe R. Williams Building in downtown Boise is certainly recognizable.
"I guess you can see why people call it the hall of mirrors," Troy Shreve said.
Thursday morning, Shreve says he noticed a flock of feathered friends scattered on the cement just outside the building.
"I passed one small bird and I saw it sitting on the sidewalk and I thought, 'oh, poor bird' and then I passed another one and I thought 'oh, poor bird,' and looked up and saw several poor birds on the sidewalk and I just stopped and looked around and I thought this is interesting and weird and sad all at the same time."
More than a handful of western tanagers, dead.
"Considering earthquakes and coronavirus and everything else that's going on in the world, did you just think birds were falling from the sky, at this point?" Brian Holmes asked.
"I thought maybe they fell out of the tree, I don't know if they slipped on a branch, but probably not," Shreve said. "I guess the building was my most logical explanation for what happened."
Most logical, and unfortunately, most likely a reflection of birds being birds.
"They think that it's just clear sky or sometimes the reflection of a tree so they think it looks like habitat and they head right towards it and nothing in their programming or history has told them that that's dangerous so they are really prone to running into them," said Heidi Ware Carlisle, education and outreach director of the Intermountain Bird Observatory.
She adds that they, along with the Idaho Bird Conservation Partnership, have been collecting data on window strikes in downtown Boise for the past five years in an effort to identify problem areas and buildings that are a threat to birds.
"I go down there a few times a week for the last five years and I've never seen dead birds on the sidewalk down there before today," Ware Carlisle said.
Observers have seen a significant increase in window strikes this spring, which could be attributed to spring migration and the unusually wet weather.
"It doesn't surprise me this weather is perfect, it's right during peak migration it makes a lot of sense that a flock would hit a window like that," Shreve said.
If a bird does hit your window, you're asked to contact the Intermountain Bird Observatory.
Join 'The 208' conversation:
- Text us at (208) 321-5614
- E-mail us at the208@ktvb.com
- Join our The 208 Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/the208KTVB/
- Follow us on Twitter: @the208KTVB or tweet #the208 and #SoIdaho
- Follow us on Instagram: @the208KTVB
- Bookmark our landing page: /the-208
- And we also turn each episode into a podcast on Spotify or Podbeam
- Still reading this list? We're on YouTube, too:
