As hundreds of millions of birds head south, the invisible danger is glass

toggle caption Angel Ruszkiewicz

Just after dawn in Washington, D.C., Stephanie Haley is walking a familiar downtown route, scanning the sidewalk next to office buildings. There, huddled on the ground, is a motionless olive-green songbird. It's an Acadian flycatcher, no doubt on its way to Central or South America before it slammed into a window.

Haley quietly sidles up to it, gently placing a net over the bird. Then she picks the bird up, using a gloved hand. It begins peeping in dismay.

"This is a good sign, the fluttering, which means that hopefully he's just stunned," says Haley, who volunteers with a local group called Lights Out DC , which urges people to turn off artificial lights during migration season, because these lights can attract birds and lead to deadly collisions.

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"I'll take him to City Wildlife and the doctors will check him out," she says, referring to the local wildlife rescue nonprofit which organizes and runs Lights Out DC.

But even though the vets put this bird in an oxygen chamber, it eventually succumbs to its injuries. Most collision victims do, even if they initially fly away. They can have concussions, and broken bones.

toggle caption Angel Ruszkiewicz

"They can be flying up to 30 miles per hour when they hit the glass, so it's a very loud thunk," says Lisbeth Fuisz, another volunteer.

The latest estimates suggest that, every year in th