Picture of 4,000 dead birds in Toronto wins international photography award
When Worlds Collide: Migratory birds, various, by Patricia Seaton wins international photography award. All 4,000 birds in Patricia Homonylo’s award-winning picture died preventable deaths, the Toronto conservation photographer said. The image shows the bodies of birds that fatally collided with buildings in Toronto last year. It earned Homonylo this year’s Bird Photographer of the Year award. She said “I want people to be shocked by this image.” The picture features a wild turkey at its centre, surrounded by concentric circles of smaller and smaller birds, including hawks, owls, warblers, blue jays and more. Their bodies were collected and arranged by members of the Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP), a Canadian charity where Homonylo volunteers, which helps birds injured in these kinds of collisions. “Unfortunately, most of the birds they find are dead. [But] those bodies are never left behind,” Homonylo said. “Once a year, the volunteers get together and they create this beautiful and tragic image of the birds called The Layout. And that’s what you’re looking at.” As birds fly south, windows are getting in the way. Environment Canada estimates as many as 42 million birds die from collisions with windows every year in this country. Already this year, FLAP has recorded 331,718 fatal bird collisions in North America. A study published last month in the journal Plos One found that window collisions are even deadlier for birds than previously believed, and that only 40 per cent of birds injured this way in the northeastern United States survived. Homonylo says it doesn’t have to be this way. “What I really hope that people understand and take away is there’s something they can do,” she said. Her photo may be upsetting, but there’s a positive aspect to it as well. “This is about honouring lives lost,” she said. “I hope people take a solemn moment of contemplation about that as well. We are less if we lose our birds.” [Thanks to Martin Cottis for bringing this News Item to my attention.]