Birds are vitally important to the environment and benefit us in many ways. Likewise, Texas holds special, global importance for birds because of the geography of their migratory pathways. About two billion birds migrate through Texas every fall, and the majority of them travel at night to evade predators, avoid daytime thermals, and save energy during their migratory flights. Species that commonly make this nighttime migration include sparrows, warblers, orioles, thrushes, and ducks, just to name a few.

But sadly, light pollution from our cities and suburbs distracts and disorients birds, leaving them vulnerable to man-made threats, like tall buildings that can cause fatal collisions. In fact, every year between 100 million and one billion birds are killed from collisions with man-made structures. Lights Out, Texas! is a campaign of education, awareness, and action that focuses on protecting the billions of migratory birds traveling through Texas. Fall migration in Texas is from August 15th to November 30th, and the peak period is from September 5th to October 29th.

Building owners, businesses, developers and homeowners can help protect migrating birds by following guidelines from the Lights Out, Texas! campaign. Start by turning off all non-essential lights from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. each night during migration season. Don’t use landscape lighting to light up trees or gardens where birds may be resting. And, close blinds at night to reduce the amount of light being emitted from windows.

Essential Lighting
For essential lights (like security lighting), use the following Dark Sky advocates lighting practices:

• Turn on lights only when and if needed.
• Use the lowest level of light needed.
• Use warm-toned lights verses cool, blue-violet lighting.
• Use motion detectors and sensors to control lights that are incidentally needed.
• Carefully target light and use shields to direct light downward to avoid light shining into the sky or into trees.

Guidelines for Buildings Taller Than Three Stories

• Extinguish or dim all exterior, decorative, and lobby lighting, and lighting in perimeter rooms on all levels of the building.
• Avoid floodlights and blue-rich, white-light emissions (lighting with a color temperature of over 3000 Kelvin).
• Schedule cleaning crews before dark and encourage the use of warm-tone desk lamps or task lighting rather than overhead lights at night.

A fascinating resource you can use to get up-to-date information about bird migration happening in Dallas county is the BirdCast Migration Dashboard. It provides current, real-time data of bird migrations including identifying the expected species currently migrating, their nightly numbers, flight speed and flight altitude. The BirdCast site also features both forecast and live bird-migration maps and local bird migration alerts.

When we protect birds, we also protect ourselves. Artificial lighting at night can negatively impact our health from sleep deprivation to depression to heart disease. Turning off non-essential lights or shielding essential ones is good for people, birds and the environment.

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