Migratory birds making their way through Houston
This important time of year highlights the "Lights Out" campaign that's helping birds migrate safely.
Author: Zack Tawatari
Published: 10:23 PM CDT April 28, 2023
Updated: 10:23 PM CDT April 28, 2023
HOUSTON — Spring is in the air and so are the birds.
The American Bird Conservancy says some 200 species of birds are flying to North America during this very important migration which runs from about mid-March to mid-May.
“It’s a lot of birds,” said Richard Gibbons, the Manager of the Gulf Conservation Program for the American Bird Conservancy.
“It is anywhere from a million birds a night or passing over during peak migration,” he said, which is exactly where we stand as of Friday.
He said many birds work their way up through Central America but this journey is just as much about where as it is when.
“They fly at night because they use Polaris the north star to navigate,” says Gibbons.
This timing though can present one glaring problem.
“Bright lights tend to attract these, you know, these migratory birds. And when those birds are brought closer into these lights, then they're exposed to additional threats, things like panes of glass,” said Gibbons.
Like in 2017, when about 400 birds collided into a Galveston building and died. The incident was the impetus for a “Lights Out” campaign in Houston asking communities to turn off non-essential lights.
And according to a 2014 study, it’s estimated that anywhere from 365 million to 1 billion birds are killed by window collisions each year in the U.S. Alone.
The American Bird Conservancy has some helpful tips on its website for keeping birds safe as they migrate at night.
Here are some helpful tips for keeping birds safe as they migrate at night:
Here's how you can track their migration:
http://birdcast.info/
https://dashboard.birdcast.info/region/US-TX-201
Stephanie Polk is the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau Manager for League City, which began turning off more of its lights last year.
“It's a very simple thing that we can do, all you do is turn off your lights, and it saves you energy and says you all that good stuff,” said Polk.
Since the pandemic began, League City has created interactive activities and programs for people to learn more about birds.
“We created just some basic materials, where to go birding, what to look for, what to how to how to identify birds,” Polk said.
It’s been a huge hit.
“We had over 1000 people signed up for our virtual burning classes,” Polk said.
You can find more information about how to get involved with "birding" in League City on the Convention and Visitor's Bureau website.
While we don’t know yet exactly how many lights have been turned off, what's clear is that doing a little can help the birds go a long way.
“They may have just flown 6000 miles from South America,” Gibbons says. “We're lucky. We get one of the best places in North America for birds."
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