Bird-Friendly Communications Towers

U.S. Considers Bird-Friendly Communications Towers

The Federal Communications Commission drew praise from a wildlife conservation group Monday for considering a plan to make communications towers less deadly for migrating birds.

The current lighting and support wires on some towers that carry broadcast and mobile phone signals kill up to 50 million migratory birds a year in the United States, said Darin Schroeder of the American Bird Conservancy.

"The birds that are being killed aren't just your common sparrows," Schroeder said by telephone, after the FCC agreed to seek comment on the tower plan. "These are Baltimore Orioles and Cerulean Warblers, birds that we really need to actively protect.

"If we can find a solution, as simple as changing the lights on a tower, I think everyone wants to see that happen," he said. "We're hopeful that a rule will be developed."

These (safety measures) include: putting antennas on existing structures rather than building new ones; building towers less than 200 feet tall to avoid the requirement that they be lighted so aircraft can see them; using red or white strobe lights on towers over 200 feet instead of solid state or slow pulsing lights; avoiding the use of guy-wires, which extend at an angle from the ground to support the towers.

Most bird kills involving communications towers occur during fall and spring when night-migrating birds are attracted to the aviation safety lights on the towers, the conservancy said in a statement.