Heading out before sunrise, volunteers for Lights Out Texas collect bird casualty data on the streets of Downtown Dallas. Photo courtesy of Texas Conservation Alliance.

April 8, 2022

For the third year, wildlife advocates are calling on Texans to turn off their outdoor lights in the evening for three weeks each spring and more people are listening.

Lights Out Texas partners — a coalition of environmental organizations including the Dallas-based Texas Conservation Alliance, Laura Bush's Texan by Nature, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology — are asking Texas residents, building managers and anyone else with authority over a power switch to turn off unnecessary nighttime lighting every night from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. during the bird migration period.

Lights Out advocates say darkening city skies is most crucial during the migration's peak, from April 22 to around May 12.

It's an attempt to mitigate a major threat to the estimated two billion migratory birds that fly through Texas as they return to North America each spring.

And organizers say the movement is growing, since launching in 2020.

Lights Out advocates say darkening city skies is most crucial during the migration's peak, from April 22 to around May 12. 

Dead birds collected by Lights Out Texas volunteers during the 2021 spring migration. Photo courtesy of Texas Conservation Alliance.Bird carcasses collected in Downtown Dallas by Lights Out Texas volunteers during the spring migration in 2021. Photo courtesy of Texas Conservation Alliance.

DEADLY DISTRACTION

The simple act of eliminating, or at least dimming, nighttime lighting helps to keep birds flying to their destination rather than being attracted to brightly lit areas.

Once distracted from their flyovers by artificial lights, migratory birds descend into populated areas where they can become vulnerable to predators or injured as they collide with windows and structures. Some estimates put the number of annual building collision casualties in the U.S. at one billion birds.

The simple act of eliminating, or at least dimming, nighttime lighting helps to keep birds flying to their destination rather than being attracted to brightly lit areas.

Ben Jones, president of the Texas Conservation Alliance, says March 1 through June 15 is the full springtime migratory season. Reducing light pollution during this time can protect the waterbirds, cuckoos, flycatchers, thrushes, warblers, orioles, buntings and other nocturnal migrants that fly into Texas on their way back from South America, as they take up residence in the state or work their way up toward Canada.

CITY PARTICIPATION

Lights Out Texas has seen a growing number of cities and building managers sign on to the effort in the last several years that the fledgling initiative has taken flight.

Notably, the City of Fort Worth has agreed to participate for another year, and more building owners and managers have seen the light on turning out the lights.

"The Lights Out program has been significantly embraced by Downtown Fort Worth. They're leaders when it comes to dimming the city center," Jones says. "We just recently got commitments from every workout fitness center in Downtown Dallas — that's seven — those are all new commitments. Last season, we had a total of 30 buildings adopt. And so for each season, we kind of start fresh, so I'm excited about these seven new businesses."

Julia Wang, Birdcast Project leader for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, helps to promote the light-pollution awareness campaign in Texas and says she's been impressed by Lights Out participation among Texas leaders over the past several years.. 

"2021 was a story of growth," she says. "Compared to 2020, we saw greatly increased participation at all levels, from municipal to commercial, to community and residential participation. In addition to proclamations of support from mayors all across the state, Travis County produced the first long-term — and full season —  resolution to continue going 'lights out' to protect birds. We hope to continue building on that support and momentum to ensure Lights Out practices become part of standard operating procedures all across the state."

Lights Out for Wildlife volunteers tabulate the data on bird casualties in Downtown Dallas so that a more targeted response may be formed. Photo courtesy of Texas Conservation Alliance.Lights Out for Wildlife volunteers tabulate the data on bird casualties in Downtown Dallas so that a more targeted response may be formed. Photo courtesy of Texas Conservation Alliance.

BIRD CASUALTIES SURVEYS

Among other signs that the movement is growing, this spring a team of Lights Out for Wildlife volunteers with the Texas Conservation Alliance has committed to a longer survey of bird casualties each morning throughout the migration period in an effort to measure the success of the campaign — from 50 days in past seasons to 80 this season. 

Earlier in March, they found no injured birds around the buildings of Downtown Dallas, but as the peak of the migration in April grew nearer, the casualties started rolling in. The data they collect gives researchers more information for estimating the scope of the problem focusing their remediation efforts.

Among the volunteers' past findings is that 80 percent of bird collisions in Downtown Dallas are associated with one location, and Jones says he's working on finding a resolution.

Among the volunteers' past findings is that 80 percent of bird collisions in Downtown Dallas are associated with one location, and Jones says he's working on finding a resolution.

"Targeted lights out action could drop collisions exponentially. We're on it and are actively working to address this trouble spot," he says.

Downtown Dallas security personnel Jose and Vincent rescued a disoriented woodcock (pictured below) during the fall migration of 2021. Photo courtesy of Texas Conservation Alliance.

Jones also says more volunteers are needed and hopes to get more citizen scientists involved in the effort to more accurately gauge the plight of migratory birds in Downtown Dallas.

”Lights Out Dallas is people-powered science," he says. "With three migratory seasons now surveyed, we are beginning to understand what is happening downtown. Science yields knowledge and that knowledge empowers life-saving action. More and more of our community is getting involved, becoming active stakeholders and conservation stewards for migratory birds. It's an amazing movement."

"More and more of our community is getting involved, becoming active stakeholders and conservation stewards for migratory birds. It's an amazing movement."

As for improvements for birds already brought about by the campaign, Jones says he's been especially encouraged by the growing awareness of the presence and needs of migratory birds that's been fostered by Lights Out Texas.

Woodcock rescued in a Downtown Dallas parking garage. Courtesy of TCA.An injured woodcock was rescued by security guards (shown above) and rehabilitated after becoming trapped in an underground parking garage. Ben Jones attributes that to a growing awareness of the dangers that migratory birds face in brightly lit urban areas. Photo courtesy of Texas Conservation Alliance.

"There's an interesting phenomenon that we're picking up on, and that's changed culture downtown regarding birds and saving bird life, and it's exciting," Jones says. "And some of the evidence we've seen is in January, some custodians at one of the downtown high rises found an injured woodcock down in the parking garage. And so they took a milk crate, and they covered the bird and then they called us. And so we were able to go downtown, pick up the bird and get it to a rehabber from those guys, and the only reason that that ever happened was because of this campaign, and because this group of custodians, and the security guards, and [because] the folks working through the night downtown are becoming participant stakeholders in this campaign."

SPREADING THE WORD

Wang says the momentum behind Lights Out Texas is just beginning to build and urges everyone to get involved as participation requires minimal effort but produces potentially huge results.

"The problem of light pollution continues to be an aggregate one, which will require all of us. If you can flip the switch and go lights out yourself, that's awesome. We're so thankful for your help protecting birds," she says. "If you can spread the word to convince your friends, neighbors, places of employment and elected officials to join you, even better."

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