Bird Strikes at Omaha Buildings - An Update

During intermittent surveys in eastern Omaha, additional occurrences of bird strikes were found through the summer months. Overall for the period of May through August, there were 167 known occurrences of birds striking buildings, primarily in the downtown area, and a couple of other places in eastern Omaha.

This is the overall tally for buildings where known bird strikes occurred:

Building - No. of Strikes
Qwest Center Omaha - 52 1200 Landmark Center - 16 Kiewit-Clarkson Passageway - 15 Omaha World-Herald Freedom Center - 14 Central Park Plaza - 12 Union Pacific Center - 10 Holland Performing Arts Center - 10 Omaha World-Herald Building - 7 Tower Park passageway - 5 Omaha Public Power District headquarters - 4 Nebraska State Office Building - 4 American National Bank - 4	First National Bank - 2 Edward Zorinsky Federal Building - 2 All Makes Office Equipment Company - 2 Woodmen Park - 1 Slowdown Lounge - 1 O'Keefe Elevator Company - 1 Kutak Rock, Omaha Building - 1 J.P. Cooke - 1 First National Tower - 1 17th and Harney Street - 1 1405 Harney Street - 1

Noted most often during the summer weeks were typical resident species, with larger numbers of species such as the Common Grackle, occurring after the birds began to fledge from nests at the various green spaces scattered among the buildings. Also the Chimney Swift, and lesser numbers of the Mourning Dove, Northern Flicker, and House Wren. A Belted Kingfisher was an unusual instance, noted at a building westward of the lagoon at the Central Park Mall.

Bird Species Name - No. of Records

• Common Grackle - 18 • Purple Martin - 15 • Common Yellowthroat - 14 • Tennessee Warbler - 13 • Ovenbird - 9 • Indigo Bunting - 9 • Sora - 5 • Chimney Swift - 5 • Yellow Warbler - 4 • Nashville Warbler - 4 • Mourning Warbler - 4 • Gray Catbird - 4 • Clay-colored Sparrow - 4 • Willow Flycatcher - 3 • White-throated Sparrow - 3 • Swainson's Thrush - 3 • Rose-breasted Grosbeak - 3 • Eastern Wood-Pewee - 3 • American Robin - 3 • Yellow-rumped Warbler - 2 • Yellow-billed Cuckoo - 2 • Wilson's Warbler - 2 • Warbling Vireo - 2 • Palm Warbler - 2 • Mourning Dove - 2 • Lincoln's Sparrow - 2 • Baltimore Oriole - 2 • American Redstart - 2

• Worm-eating Warbler - 1 • Red-eyed Vireo - 1 • Olive-sided Flycatcher - 1 • Northern Waterthrush - 1 • Northern Flicker - 1 • Louisiana Waterthrush - 1 • Least Flycatcher - 1 • House Wren - 1 • House Finch - 1 • Hooded Warbler - 1 • Hairy Woodpecker - 1 • Eastern Kingbird - 1 • Connecticut Warbler - 1 • Common Nighthawk - 1 • Chipping Sparrow - 1 • Chestnut-sided Warbler - 1 • Cedar Waxwing - 1 • Blue Grosbeak - 1 • Black-and-white Warbler - 1 • Belted Kingfisher - 1 During the four month period, 47 species were recorded. Additional records would be included for instances where the particular species was not certain due to the age of the carcass and missing essentials for identification.

Most of the warbler records were from the spring migration period. Additional instances began to occur at the end of August, initiating the autumn migration.

Purple Martins were fatalities at the passageway between the Kiewit Center and the Clarkson Doctor's building South in the last few days of August. After 15 known instances (12 dead and 3 injured birds during 23-28 August), personnel associated with the Nebraska Medical Center hung banners on August 30th, within the passageway, on the west side, to provide a visual barrier for the thousands of birds occurring at the locale. Additional occurrences likely occurred before the roost was discovered on August 23rd.

This has been the only effort to reduce or prevent bird strikes at any of the known places of danger at buildings indicated on the above list. There is a massive roost for Purple Martins in some ash trees just west of the passageway, with at least 25,000 martins present during the nights of the last few days of August.

The specific site of the known bird strikes are shown on a map of the area where buildings were checked.