Wildlife professionals and advocates are grappling with an avian influenza outbreak that seems to be growing more virulent among Chicago's wild birds.

Chicago Bird Collision Monitors has been responding to an increase in calls for help in rescuing wild birds suffering from avian influenza.

If the Bally’s hotel and casino on the Chicago River aren’t built with birds in mind, the question isn’t whether birds will die in collisions but how many. “It could rival the carnage at McCormick Place,” one advocate said.

Spring migration is still weeks away from reaching its peak in Chicago and already the tiny body bags are piling up, filled with birds killed in collisions with the city’s glass buildings.

Monday’s meeting of the McPier board was dominated by discussion of the mass death of 1,000 birds in a single day, killed after colliding with McCormick Place. Bird conservationists want a solution in place by spring migration.

Sterling Bay’s first completed structure at its $6 billion Lincoln Yards riverfront development was constructed with bird-friendly glass. The use of the material is one of several features intended to minimize the sorts of deadly bird collisions Chicago just witnessed in record numbers.

While the full tally of dead will never be known, wildlife advocates are certain of one thing: The vast majority of bird losses in the past week were preventable.

Chicago is one of the deadliest cities for migrating birds and Thursday’s “insane abundance of migratory action” led to “insane mortality,” birders said. The remedy is as simple as flipping off a light switch.

If the embattled online retailer still wants to build its tower in Skokie, the company will have to start the approval process back at square one, village trustees said.

If a casino is coming to the riverfront, publicly accessible open green space should be a priority, as well as considerations for wildlife habitat, environmental advocates say. And the buildings themselves should be held to the highest standards of sustainability and climate resiliency.

In response to concerns about putting a see-through glass tower in the path of migrating birds, Carvana revised its plan to incorporate bird-friendly components. Critics called the proposed mitigations “woefully inadequate.” 

A 140-foot-tall transparent structure that’s brightly illuminated 24/7, located across the street from Harms Woods nature preserve, along a key migratory greenway, is a triple threat to birds, environmentalists say.

Nearly 600 million birds are killed annually in North America due to collisions with buildings. A new Illinois law mandates bird-friendly design for state buildings.

Since 2003, a group called the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors has made it their mission to collect birds that have been killed or injured after striking buildings and other structures.