Photo: Baltimore Orioles, Eric Nie/Audubon Photography Awards
Migration season is approaching fast. Between March 15 and May 31, 100 million birds will pass through northern Virginia, most of them flying at night. The birds can be disoriented by bright lights from tall buildings and sky glow from light pollution. Some crash into the buildings and are injured or die. Other birds fly around the lights, exhausting themselves. It’s critical that we take steps to help protect them.
There are three ways you can help protect migrating birds.
Help us talk to building managers. NVBA and other members of the Bird Safe NOVA partnership will be contacting building managers in the Tysons and Reston areas to tell them how important it is to turn lights out between 11 PM and 6 AM during migration season. How effective we’ll be will depend on how many people are willing to help. If you’d like to work with us on this project, please email advocacy@nvbirdalliance.org.
Search for birds injured or killed by window collisions. We will work with Wildlife Rescue League to train volunteers who will walk around tall buildings early in the morning during migration season to document bird deaths from window collisions. Data on bird deaths can be used to help convince building managers to turn their lights out at night. We’ll provide training on where to go and what to do and provide business cards with contact information so people can let us know when they find dead birds. Of course, if the bird needs help, call the Wildlife Rescue League at 703-440-0800.
Help build a database of bird collisions. Jeremy Andre, an alumnus of George Mason University, has developed the One Stone Bird Map, a geographic information system (GIS) visualization project designed to track and analyze avian mortality across the DC, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) area. The project’s objective is to shed light on the under-reported issue of bird deaths in urban areas, particularly from window collisions and outdoor cats. You can learn more about the project here.
You can also report bird deaths on iNaturalist’s Bird-Window Collisions website. The project will help quantify mortality of birds due to window collisions, identify hotspots of mortality, and propose mitigation measures.
We’re joining efforts around the country to protect birds from window collisions.
Northern Virginia is far behind other areas of the country in working to protect birds from window collisions. The District of Columbia has a well-established Lights Out DC campaign run by City Wildlife. The Cape Henry Audubon Society has spearheaded a very effective Lights Out Hampton Roads campaign. They have established teams that walk key areas of Norfolk to find and report birds killed by window collisions and have convinced building managers to turn out or dim their lights during migration. Lights Out campaigns are operating throughout the country. National Audubon Society’s Lights Out Program map documents more than twenty cities with program to reduce outdoor lighting during migration season, including Philadelphia, New York City, and Chicago.
It’s time for Northern Virginia to do its part to protect birds. If you’d like to help, contact us at advocacy@nvbirdalliance.org.