Texans asked to turn lights out during migratory bird season
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(Texas News Service) The fall migration period for birds is underway, and the nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife is trying to save as many birds as possible.
The Lights Out Texas! campaign encourages building owners, businesses, developers, and homeowners to turn off non-essential lights at night to keep birds from getting disoriented.
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Azalia Rodriguez - the Texas representative for Defenders of Wildlife - said as birds fly at night they are attracted to the bright lights, and then collide with buildings during the early morning hours.
"Birds don't understand the concept of glass, they don't understand that it is an invisible barrier," said Rodriguez. "And so when they see glass they will see a tree reflected on the glass, and so they think it's habitat and they'll try to fly into that habitat."
Rodriguez said 70 percent of the collisions are fatal. It's estimated nearly two billion birds pass through Texas from August 15 through November 30.
Multiple cities in the Austin area, the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, the Houston-Gulf Coast area, and El Paso in West Texas, participate in Lights Out Texas!
You can get a real time count of the number of birds flying into a city at birdcast.info.
Rodriguez said building collisions are the second leading cause of bird deaths in the United States.
"One billion U.S. deaths occur for birds from building collisions," said Rodriguez. "It definitely is a huge problem and so it is causing a decrease in our population. Building collisions are actually the number two biggest threat to birds."
Cats are the number one threat to birds.
Peak fall migration dates are between September 5 and October 29. Spring migration dates are March 1 through June 15.
