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A pedestrian-only bridge overlooking the Geum River was opened in Sejong City earlier this year.

By the way, the birds are crashing into the transparent glass window on the railing of this bridge and they are dying.



Reporter Lee Yong-shik conducted on-site coverage.



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A round, circular bridge stands tall over the river.



Vehicles are not allowed, the first floor is for bicycles and the second floor is for pedestrians, but there is a dead bird on this bridge.



[Bridge management staff: I found a lot, dozens of them must have died by now.

It 's not a pigeon, but what kind of bird is it?]



It is a rare summer migratory bird as a dumb cuckoo, a type of cuckoo.



It is presumed that he died by colliding with a transparent glass window on a bridge railing before leaving for Southeast Asia to breed in Korea in the summer and spend the winter.



Even for resident birds, the balustrade window is a death trap.



Starlings, kingfishers, and sparrows collide with each other and die every day.



Birds that die in crashes are mostly found inside the bridge, but if they hit the outside of the bridge, they fall into the river and are difficult to find, so the actual damage is estimated to be much higher.



This is because the bridge railings are made of transparent glass windows so that only pedestrians can see clearly without considering the bird's movement characteristics.



[Hong Kyung-pyo/Sejong City Hall Park Management Department: Glass is transparent, so it probably doesn't recognize it and hits it.]



As new collisions continued, Sejong City decided to attach a square dot tape to the glass window early next month to prevent collision.



Birds recognize small dots as obstacles to avoid collisions.



About 8 million birds per year die from colliding with transparent windows.



Although the law that mandates damage reduction measures on soundproof walls and glass windows of buildings is expected to go into full force in June next year, even before the law takes effect, damage reduction facilities on transparent windows must be rushed to prevent the birds from dying.



(Video coverage: Hojun Choi, Mincheol Kim)