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2 billion birds migrate through Texas each Spring – Lights Out program keep buildings dark at night to keep birds safe from collisions
Texas is globally important for birds.
Approximately 1 of every 3 birds migrating through the U.S. in spring, and 1 of every 4 birds migrating through the U.S. in the fall, or nearly two billion birds, passes through Texas in one of the planet’s great wildlife spectacles.
Majority of North American birds migrating travel at night! Unfortunately, light emanating from our cities can disorient birds, leaving them confused and vulnerable to urban threats like collisions with buildings. In fact, between one hundred million and one billion birds die every year in collisions with manmade structures – one of the biggest killers of migratory birds.
Lights Out, Texas! is a campaign of education, awareness, and action that focuses on protecting the billions of migratory birds traveling through Texas.
The first Lights Out for Birds programme was formed soon after in the Houston area, which has now expanded into the statewide “Lights Out, Texas!” effort with Audubon Texas.
Around the same time as the Galveston bird crash, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology developed a way to forecast bird migration during specific times and locations, using radar. The resulting BirdCast migration forecast maps are freely accessible. Their live migration map allows anyone to check how many birds are migrating now, and where, as well as how many are predicted to pass in the near future. For one night in October, they recorded a “billion bird night”, with that number or more birds passing in a single night.
