A billion birds a year are killed when they crash into buildings. You can help by turning out the lights
Almost half the window collisions in Connecticut are at houses or buildings under two stories.
Sign up for alerts. Take the pledge. Turn off the lights at night.
Sign up for Lights Out alerts HERE.
A billion birds a year are killed in North America when they crash into buildings. To mark the organization’s 125th anniversary, Connecticut Audubon has become part of the Lights Out Connecticut coalition and we’re asking you to help by turning out your lights.
Birds migrate at night and that makes them vulnerable to building lights.
It’s a huge problem. The lights lure them straight into windows and buildings. And it’s gut-wrenching to find a dead bird crumpled on the ground next to a building.
What can be done? The Lights Out Connecticut coalition would like you to turn out your house lights during the current migration season.
Losing a billion birds a year to building collisions in an era when bird populations have fallen by 30 percent, is just unacceptable..
At one building in New Haven, more than 400 dead birds of 56 species were found from 2018 to 2022. Big city buildings are partly to blame but not completely: in Connecticut, houses have more window square footage than offices. Nationwide, almost half of all window strikes are at houses or buildings smaller than three stories.
Turn out your lights from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. during peak spring and fall bird migration: from now through May 31 and from August 15 through November 15.
Bird conservationists also know, thanks to advanced radar technology, when big migration nights are coming and unusually large numbers of birds will be at risk.
On some spring nights, 1 million birds are flying over Connnecticut. In fall, the number can reach 5 million.
When that happens, we will send you a simple alert: birds will be migrating tonight, so please turn out your lights.
We’ll send these alerts via email but we can also let you know via text.
Sign up for Lights Out alerts HERE.
Turning out your lights works. A study in Chicago demonstrated that when buildings turned out their lights, it cut the number of birds that died by crashing into those buildings by half.
You will also receive action alerts to speak out on a key Lights Out bill in the Connecticut General Assembly. If it passes, all Connecticut state buildings will be required to turn out their lights during spring and fall migrations.
It’s also important to report dead birds. dBird.org is a simple database that collects information on dead and injured birds from around the country.
If you find a dead bird, please take a photo, open dBird.org on any browser, and report it. A recent report of a dead Red-bellied Woodpecker near here took less than 2 minutes to complete.
Sign up here for our Lights Out alerts.
Visit the Lights Out Coalition’s webpage to take their Lights Out pledge and for information about other coalition members.
