Help migrating birds in Texas by turning off your lights, TPWD says

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is asking people to do one simple task to help migrating birds: Turn off your lights.

The Lights Out initiative starts on Saturday and goes through May 12. By turning nonessential lights off, people can help birds on their journey, as the bright lights from cities and towns can confuse them.

During that time, people are asked to turn off nonessential lights from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. each night and to refrain from using landscape lighting where birds may be nesting.

Here are ways people can help, according to TPWD:

• Aim lights downward.
• Use lighting shields to direct light downward and avoid light shining into the sky or trees.
• Use motion detectors and sensors so lights only come on when you need them.
• Close blinds at night to reduce the amount of light from windows.

Business owners can adjust lighting schedules to turn off by 11 p.m. or ask staff to turn off lights after they’re done with work.

TPWD said the American National Insurance Company and Houston Audubon launched the original Lights Out program after a 2017 report showed that 400 birds slammed into a skyscraper and died.

“Two decades of research from Chicago, the country’s deadliest city for migrating birds (followed closely by Houston and Dallas), show that darkening the windows produced 11 times fewer bird collisions during the spring migration and 6 times fewer collisions during the fall migration,” TPWD said in a news release. “These results are significant because one of every three birds migrating through the United States in the spring or fall — nearly 2 billion in total — pass through Texas.”

For more information about dark sky-friendly lighting, click here.

Read also:

• Here’s why you shouldn’t handle or feed young or ‘abandoned’ wildlife
• Alien remains? Sea monster? Unsightly creature washes up along Texas seashore