Safer Flyway

Never underestimate the power of bird lovers. Last week the management of Manhattan's 1,472-ft. Empire State Building announced that out of respect for migrating birds and the National Audubon Society, it has doused the building's stationary beacon, and will keep it doused until Nov. 1, when most of the feathered friends are safe in their winter resorts.

An important flyway of migratory birds, says the Audubon Society, passes over Manhattan Island, and the birds have been having increasing trouble with man-made mountains poking their tops into their right of way. Birds generally fly at night, and when the sky is clear, they keep well above New York's highest buildings. But a low ceiling of turbulent clouds often forces them down to levels where they may tangle fatally with glass and brick and steel. Powerful lights on the tops of buildings seem to attract and confuse the birds. Sometimes the sidewalks around the Empire State have been littered with dead migrants.

Since the beacon on the Empire State was extinguished, says the Audubon Society, no birds have crashed. The revolving lights that march around the building's top seem to be no menace to the birds. The light does not touch them long enough to lead them astray.

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