Do you want to find out what birds tell us about our environment? How do they (maybe) cope with environmental modifications that we challenge them with? How do they make their amazing migrations over thousands of miles when the world around them changes? How do they perceive brightly lit cities at night?
Bird documentary at the Gateway film center
The documentary “The messenger” tries to find answers to these and many more questions that scientific studies tracking migrating birds have brought up.
The tetrapods collection was involved in the Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative project “Lights Out Columbus” which contributed to these data. It documented bird casualties in downtown Columbus because many migrating birds hit illuminated windows at night. Volunteers walked the streets in the mornings and recorded and collected bird casualties at the base of tall buildings. The birds were prepared into museum skins and now “live” as specimens in our museum collection. It was eye-opening to see the numbers and diversity of birds that are affected: Ruby-throated Hummingbird, American Woodcock, Wood Thrush, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Yello Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, American Redstart, Indigo Bunting … the list goes on and on and you can bet that your favorite bird is on there too.
The 1hour 33minute documentary will be shown at the Gateway film center on Friday December 4th at 7pm as well as on Saturday and Sunday at 2pm.
About the Author: Dr. Angelika Nelson is curator of the Borror Laboratory of Bioacoustics.