Almost 300 birds died and 30 were injured in less than 24 hours after hitting the World Trade Center's glass towers in New York City.
Hundreds of songbirds died after flying into several of the World Trade Center towers, leaving piles of carcasses lying on the sidewalk.
The collisions were blamed on the skyscrapers' lights being left on and their reflective glass, which confuses the birds into flying into them.
Melissa Breyer, a volunteer bird collision monitor for New York City Audubon, counted 291 dead birds on Tuesday morning within 65 minutes of walking around WTC Three and Four.
Volunteer bird collision monitor Melissa Breyer picked up 291 dead birds (pictured) with her bare hands outside the World Trade Center towers
She told the New York Post that she typically only sees 15 to 20 birds on her trips, but was shocked to find 291 near the bases of One, Three, Four, and Seven World Trade Centers.
'I was totally shocked. It was an overwhelming thing,' she told the New York Post. 'I looked around and it was like a nightmare.'
Similar issues have plagued other skyscrapers in Manhattan during the annual migration season, as well as other cities including Chicago which are famed for their high density of tall buildings.
Breyer posted photos of the carcasses on her Twitter page, writing: 'Counting the dead birds on @_WTCOfficial awnings that I couldn’t collect; add another 35, + the 30 who went to @wildbirdfundmaking my documented total 291 between WTC 1, 3, 4, 7.'
The majority of the birds were found outside of the WTC Three (pictured) and Four
Operator for WTC Three, Four,(pictured) and Seven have reportedly told employees to turn off the lights of pull down the blinds at night to reduce bird collisions and deaths. One WTC already has glass fins up to the 200-feet to reduce
