Songbirds lead perilous lives that can be cut short by predators, food shortages, disease, migration hazards, and other lethal threats. Among the most tragic-seeming are collisions with buildings during migration, particularly tall buildings in large cities. Many birds migrate at night so that the lights of skyscrapers may be attractants or sources of confusion. A recent study of nearly 70,000 bird fatalities in Chicago over 40 years and a few thousand in Cleveland over a single season revealed that a handful of species were far more prone to die in this manner. In fact, in the Chicago study, 10,000 white-throated sparrows were counted (that’s 14% of the death toll) and, along with a few other species, were dubbed “supercolliders” by the research team. These supercolliders had one common trait - they all tend to sing while they fly. This singing was thought to draw fellow migrants closer together and on course even when that course is a fatal trajectory towards a building.

While the rate of bird fatalities per building is highest with the tallest buildings, overall far more deaths occur from crashes into low-rise buildings and residences because there are so many more of them. In total, studies suggest that between 400 and 900 million birds die in this way each year. As part of a national conservation effort, check out the Audubon Society’s “Lights Out” program with chapters in many US cities. But, we all know the largest source of mortality among songbirds, right? Domestic or feral house cats kill as many as 4 billion birds each year! Yes, those same so cute YouTube stars! Keep your cat indoors, please. Wind turbines by comparison “only” account for a few hundred thousand.

But, after mourning the deaths, let’s celebrate the survivors as we have unfortunately learned to do in this endless pandemic. White-throated sparrows winter from the southern United States up to southern New England and breed in the summer in the northern midwest, New England, and southern Canada. Like their song sparrow brethren, their song is “too sweet for sadness” sounding like “Oh, sweet, Canada, Canada” or “Old Sam Peabody, Peabody.”

THE WHITE-THROATED SPARROW Florence Earle Coates - 1916

WOULD you feel the witching spell
⁠Of the whitethroat, listen!
There are secrets he can tell
Of the marsh, and of the dell
⁠Where the dewdrops glisten.

Poet of the brooding pine
⁠And the feathery larches,
Dawn-lit summits seem to shine,
Lucent in each throbbing line,
⁠Under azure arches.

All his soul a floating song,—
⁠Sweet, too sweet for sadness,—
At his bidding, hither throng
Memories that make us long
⁠With a plaintive gladness.

Ah, were all the woodland bare,
⁠Should those notes but quiver,
Straight I'd see it budding fair!—
And the lilies would be there,
⁠Floating on the river!