It’s common knowledge that turning the lights out saves energy. But not everyone knows that the simple act of flipping a switch can also protect millions of birds a year. Researchers in Chicago monitoring a single building showed that over 30,000 birds died after colliding with it in a 20-year period. Disoriented by the lights, the birds flew into the windows and never made it to their seasonal destinations. Published estimates suggest that over 100 million birds die every year as a result of such collisions across the United States.
Thanks to a TogetherGreen Innovation Grant to Audubon Minnesota, a coalition of conservation groups and local government agencies will soon make bird migration safer in Minnesota. The group will work with the owners, managers and residents of tall buildings to turn off their lights at night during the spring and fall migration periods. Extending “Project Bird Safe,” which Audubon Minnesota launched in 2007, the project will help put the city on par with New York, Toronto and Chicago, where Project Bird Safe - Lights Out programs are also underway.
Project goals include obtaining full cooperation for the Lights Out program in targeted cities; developing a Minnesota building and window design task force with architects, industry, government and conservation groups; increasing the number of volunteers conducting monitoring; and engaging a wider audience in reducing bird collisions.
To be successful, Lights Out will require the cooperation of many constituencies working toward a common goal. With TogetherGreen support, Audubon Minnesota will have the resources it needs to mobilize these diverse groups, give them a challenge they can meet, with results they can see, while having strategic impacts on at-risk bird populations through reduced mortality.
Birds of over 70 different species collided with buildings in the Twin Cities in 2007. Flipping light switches at night may be the most critical way to help sustain threatened bird populations. And think of the reductions in electricity bills!