Community Updates
Flip the Switch, Save a Bird
By Cheryl Conley | Lake Creek Nature Preserve
When I was a child,“ lights out” was not a suggestion— it was a decree handed down nightly by my mother. No negotiations, no dramatic pleas form“ just five more minutes,” and certainly no hiding under the covers with a flashlight and a book( though I may have tested that boundary once or twice). The moment those words were
do not survive. Between 365 million and 1 billion birds die each year due to collisions with buildings, the majority of which are during migration.
Sometimes it takes a tragedy to force people to see a problem that has been there all along, and that is spoken, the house went dark, the day was officially over, and everyone was expected to cooperate. Funny how decades later, I’ m still hearing that same command in my head— only now it’ s not about bedtime, but about helping millions of migrating birds safely navigate the night skies over Texas.
Back then, my mother’ s reasoning was simple: people need sleep. These days,“ Lights Out” carries another kind of wisdom. Texas is the main flyover state for migrating birds and each spring and fall, about 2 billion birds travel across the state under the cover of darkness, using the moon, stars, and natural light cues to guide them. Artificial lights can overpower those natural signals. Our brightly lit homes, office buildings, parking lots, and city skylines can confuse the nighttime travelers, pulling them off course and sometimes leading to deadly collisions with windows and buildings. Some will circle the lights until sheer exhaustion sets in, while others drop lower into dangerous territory, attracted by the lights. At that level, reflections of the sky, trees, and clouds in glass can appear to be safe, open habitat. In an instant, what looked like a clear path becomes a deadly illusion— one that far too many birds exactly how Lights Out for Birds was born in Texas. In 2017, Galveston workers arrived at the American National Insurance building to find nearly 400 migratory birds dead around the brightly lit tower. The sight was heartbreaking— a true wake-up call along one of the most important migration corridors in North America. Out of that disaster came action. Houston Audubon launched what would later become the Lights Out Texas movement. In 2020 that effort expanded into the broader statewide campaign. While the Lights Out idea began in a different state, the tragic Galveston collision in 2017 sparked Texas’ s own movement and today it is supported by a coalition of Audubon Texas, Houston Audubon, Cornell Lab’ s BirdCast, Defenders of Wildlife, cities, universities, and local partners across Texas.
Helping birds during spring and fall migration is remarkably simple. Homeowners can switch off porch lights, landscape lighting, and unnecessary indoor lights. Close blinds so window reflections don’ t lure birds closer. If you work in or visit an office building, consider encouraging building owners or managers to join the Lights Out effort by
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