A thousand drones that will ascend to the night skies above Central Park on Saturday are meant to simulate a “murmuration” of birds, but wildlife advocates and a local councilmember say the spectacle will harm actual birds during the peak of migration season.
The armada of drones belonging to a three-show art installation planned for Saturday evening will be “exploring the relationship between man, nature and technology,” according to organizers’ event page. The installation will feature about a thousand drones at shows scheduled for 7 p.m., 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. for 10 minutes at a time. They will mimic a murmuration, a term used to describe a flock of birds in motion, typically starlings.
The New York Times wrote that the show “will not involve starlings, unless they show up uninvited,” but Councilmember Gale Brewer and wildlife groups say the skies are the birds’ domain — and the drones are unwanted guests that could wreak havoc on birds flying over the park.
“Postpone would be fine, different location would be fine,” Brewer said in an interview Saturday. “But these birds — 6,000 to 12,000 tonight if it’s not raining — will in fact land and then take off tomorrow. That’s what they do. They’ve been doing it for centuries. And it makes no sense to have a light show — drone or anything else — which they go toward.”
NYC Audubon, an affiliate of the National Audubon Society, said the light can draw the birds and potentially harm them if they come into contact with the drones.
“This is a VERY BAD IDEA,” the group posted on the social media platform X on Friday. “#lightpollution during peak #birdmigration, which BTW is happening right now, poses a hazard for the millions of birds traveling over NYC on their migrations.”
The organization pleaded with the city to move the event outside of fall migration.
“These shows are spectacles of artificial light, and NYC Audubon knows from its #ProjectSafeFlight research that #lightpollution disrupts flight patterns & disorients migratory birds in NYC — contributing to the 250,000 FATAL COLLISIONS WITH BUILDINGS annually,” the organization said in another post.
A spokesperson for Drift, the Dutch studio behind the event, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Parks department spokesperson Kelsey Jean-Baptiste said organizers were complying with the city’s new drone rules, and that the agency looked forward to a “successful and memorable show this Saturday.”
“While we respect New Yorkers’ concerns, we have been in close contact with the organizer of this weekend’s event, and they are complying with the new city guidelines governing the use of drones,” Jean-Baptiste said in a statement. “As Parks works with its sister agencies to operationalize this policy, we intend to work with all relevant partners, including wildlife experts.”
But Brewer, an influential fixture of city government, said the drone guidelines are lacking in this respect.
“I just don’t think they take into account 6,000 to 12,000 migrating birds,” she said. “Nothing wrong with drones — they play a very positive role in many cases, and the guidelines may fit their normal role. But this is not a normal role.”
A petition circulating online calling for the event to be postponed or called off has gained more than a thousand signatures since Friday.
“It is mystifying that the makers of this bird-centric show and everyone involved in approving this do not seem to understand (or care) about bird migration and the importance of @CentralParkNYC to migratory birds in fall,” said the Wild Bird Fund, a rehabilitation center for sick and injured birds, in a tweet.
