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Curious City

Why is there an aviary at O'Hare Airport?

Curious City

WBEZ Chicago

Society & Culture, Education, Public, Chicago, Arts, City, Radio, Curious, Investigation

4.8642 Ratings

🗓️ 28 November 2024

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A curious listener asked why he saw an aviary at O'Hare Airport. It turns out, it isn't an aviary at all — it’s a trap for an invasive species of bird.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

What's up Chicago? It's Erin Allen. The holiday travel season is in full swing. And if you've ever waited in a long line at TSA, you may have had some time to look around and notice a few feathered passengers at the airport as well.

0:17.2

Last episode, I looked into what happens when birds get inside the terminal at O'Hare.

0:22.1

Today, we're going to bring you a curious city story from 2012 that investigates what happens to birds that are outside on the runway.

0:30.5

Here's reporter Logan Jaffe.

0:35.4

Chicago and Steve Brockway was leaving his job at the United Airways Reservation Center when he saw something new.

0:42.2

He pulled out of the parking lot at O'Hare Airport.

0:44.5

I saw that there was an aviary full of birds between me and the runway.

0:50.5

I thought that was kind of odd.

0:52.0

So odd, because an aviary is for raising birds, and why would O'Hare do that?

0:58.0

Brockway sent us his question and a photo.

1:01.0

That picture shows a framed wood cage about six feet by six feet with mesh wiring,

1:07.0

and in the cage a bunch of small black birds, maybe 20 to 30 of them.

1:12.5

I emailed the pick to O'Hare, then they clarify,

1:16.0

this aviary is actually a trap set up by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

1:21.1

And the target?

1:22.5

The European starling.

1:24.0

And there's more.

1:24.9

After the starlings are trapped, they're euthanized, killed.

1:28.6

Humanely, but they're killed. In fact, last year, the USDA killed about one and a half

1:34.4

million starlings nationwide. Thousands were caught at airports.

1:38.9

We actually kind of refer to them as flying bullets.

1:41.2

That's Craig Pullins, a USDA wildlife biologist at O'Hare.

...

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