Mesmerizing: A Tribute Of Confusion For Some Species

Photo by Scott Hudson aka NJ Scott

Every September 11th since 2001, New York City has paid tribute to those fallen with breathtaking beams of light rising from the site of the Towers to the eternal skies above. People from all over the country - the world even - come to this memoriam to pay their respects.

But more then just people flock to this site.

This year the lights disoriented some 10,000 birds migrating over lower Manhattan. Apparently the birds lose their orientation in the bright lights, become confused,

and wind up circling the area for hours.
"Through the course of the night we shut the lights off five times for approximately 20 minutes each time," John Rowden, Citizen Science Manager for NYC Audubon Society told Animal Planet.

Preventing the birds from becoming mesmerized by the lights is important because these migrating birds are running low on fat stores and energy. A night's worth of circling Ground Zero could cause exhaustion problems while on their journey to the north.
Fortunately this problem does not happen every year. Weather conditions have altered the paths of birds in the past, leading them away from Manhattan on September 11th. But a similar situation did occurred in 2004, leading some animal advocates to question the tribute's ethics and legality since migratory birds are protected by federal law. TIME