Lights out for birds during spring migration!

Lights out for birds during fall migration!

April and May are the peak months for spring bird migration across the United States. Right now, birds are heading north for the summer, crossing the U.S. in the millions every evening. The BirdCast.info website can give you an idea of what regions will see the highest number of birds passing each night. So when your area is especially active, turn off your exterior lights and encourage your neighbors to do the same. Artificial lights disorient birds, changing their behavior and sometimes leading to their deaths.

BirdCast.info says:

Light pollution attracts and disorients migrating birds, confusing and exhausting them as well as making them vulnerable to collisions with buildings.

So here’s what you can do:

• Turn off non-essential lights from 11 p.m. until 6 a.m. during critical migration periods
• Turn off or dim lobby and atrium lights
• Be sure outside lights are aimed down and well shielded
• Turn off or dim interior home lighting, or draw blinds to prevent light escaping
• Turn off decorative landscape lighting
• Install motion sensors on outside lights to minimize use
• Turn off lights before leaving the home or office
• Prevent daylight collisions with bird-friendly products for windows

Read more: Want to save millions of migratory birds? Turn off your outdoor lights in spring and fall

Migration maps

The maps from BirdCast.info depict migratory patterns over the years. As the website explains:

Bird migration forecasts show predicted nocturnal migration 3 hours after local sunset and are updated every 6 hours. These forecasts come from models trained on the last 23 years of bird movements in the atmosphere as detected by the US NEXRAD weather surveillance radar network.

You can get the next three nights’ worth of maps at the site. And besides the prediction maps, you can also find live bird migration maps. They’ll give you an idea of where birds are active right now. Birds are most active after dark. And if you don’t want to keep checking back at the website to see when birds are active in your area, you can sign up for alerts.

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Sites to help you see and protect birds

Tracking and research tools:

• BirdCast
  Migration forecasts, live radar-based migration maps and alerts you can use to know when migration is happening in your area.
• Motus Wildlife Tracking System
  A global collaboration using small tracking tags (for birds, bats, insects) and receiving stations to map how animals move across landscapes.
• Audubon’s Bird Migration Explorer
  Interactive maps and data showing annual migration routes for hundreds of species across North America.
• National Zoo: Migratory Birds Tracking Map
  Shows real tracking data (from tagged birds) on real maps.
• Journey North
  Citizen science and seasonal tracking of migrating species (birds, butterflies, etc.).
• Canadian Migration Monitoring Network (CMMN)
  Long-term monitoring of migration trends in Canada, via many observatories.
• PixCams Live Bird Migration Station
  A hybrid setup (optical + thermal + acoustic) giving real-time monitoring of nocturnal migrations.
• MigrantWatch (India)
  A citizen science effort to log migratory bird sightings in India.
• eBird India

A nationwide citizen-science platform where birdwatchers record their sightings to build an open database tracking bird distribution, abundance and migration patterns across India year-round.

Some initiatives for protecting migrating birds:

• Audubon Lights Out Program
  Encourages turning off/excluding unnecessary lighting during migration seasons to reduce bird collisions.
• Lights Out Heartland
  A regional campaign in the U.S. Midwest focused on reducing light pollution during key migration windows.
• FLAP Canada (Fatal Light Awareness Program)
  Works on reducing collisions, raising awareness, and tracking collisions especially in Canada.
• City & Local Lights Out Programs
  Many cities have local versions that you can join or replicate in your area.

Bottom line: Turn the lights out for birds during spring migration. And check out the links here to maps that show when birds are passing over the area where you live.

Read more: Fall hummingbird migration in progress across North America