Standard Practice in Many City Buildings Benefits Birds Each Spring and Fall
Each spring and fall, millions of migrating birds travel through the State of North Carolina, mostly under the cover of darkness. To help assure their safe passage, the City of Raleigh is joining efforts to protect migrating birds by going Lights Out.
Non-essential lighting in many City facilities is turned off between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., lowering costs, reducing energy consumption, and supporting the City’s sustainability goals in the Community Climate Action Plan. Each spring and fall, this also benefits migrating birds!
Bright lights can attract and disorient nocturnally migrating birds, leading to potential collisions with buildings. Migratory bird populations are in serious decline, and such collisions are significant contributors to these losses. Turning off lights is a simple way to make a positive impact!
All are encouraged to join the Lights Out initiative to help protect migrating birds by turning off non-essential nighttime lighting through the month of May. Audubon North Carolina provides these recommendations to help make the skies a little darker during migration seasons:
- Turn off the lights outside of your home, especially upward-facing lights.
- Close blinds and curtains at home and before leaving your office for the day.
- If you work in an office building, ask your employer to turn off exterior upward-facing lights, as well as interior office lights, from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Through these standard practices in many City buildings, Raleigh participates in Lights Out for Bird Migration twice yearly, in the spring and fall. Wake Audubon is planning additional "Lights Out Wake" activities in partnership with this important effort. Details will be available on Wake Audubon's website.
For more information on Lights Out initiatives, bird migration forecasts, and the latest research developments, please visit the BirdCast website. For nocturnal bird migration alerts in Raleigh, please visit the BirdCast Migration Alerts page for the city, which provides a three-day forecast for bird migration.
The lands and waters managed by Raleigh Parks form the backbone of a resilient, citywide ecological framework. Learn more about what Raleigh is doing in the Environmental Resilience section of the Raleigh Parks Plan.