Conservationists are calling for a developer to take down a nearly mile-long glass wall built around a new housing development near the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach after they say at least a dozen birds, including several birds of prey, died when they flew into the structure.
In recent weeks, two harrier hawks, a mourning dove, a yellow rumped warbler and a hummingbird, are among those that have died after flying into the see-through wall, conservationists said.
"You could not build a better passive bird killer in a better spot than they did here," said Scott Thomas, conservation director for Sea & Sage Audubon, an Orange County chapter of the Audubon Society. He is offering walking tours of what conservationists have dubbed "the wall of death."
Hearthside Homes, which is building 350 homes on a mesa overlooking the wetlands, has no plans to take down the wall that the company was given permission to build in 2005, said Senior Vice President Ed Mountford.
Mountford said the wall was built to mark the boundary between the backyards of future residents and the public open space below. Glass was used to preserve views of the wetlands.
A more open design that would have let birds fly through, such as wrought iron, was ruled out because it would have let wildlife such as skunks and snakes crawl and slither into backyards.
While acknowledging at least half a dozen birds had been found along the wall, Mountford said the problem was being "blown out of proportion." The developer has erected a temporary chain-link fence adorned with yellow construction tape behind most of the wall as a warning to birds. The developer also is patrolling the fence three times daily to log new deaths, but none have been recorded since the chain-link fence was put up last week, Mountford said.
He said that in the next two days workers would put up a brown windscreen on the fence to further deter birds from smacking into the glass.
When the homes are built, Mountford said, they will provide a backdrop that should solve the problem.
Birders disagree, saying construction of the homes won't make a difference.
The reflection of nearby trees on the glass, not its transparency, is most likely what is confusing the birds, said Gary Langham, director of bird conservation for Audubon California. "It's a mirage, basically, because birds think they're flying into the reflection. They think they're going to a safe haven, and they're just slamming into this wall."
