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Many migratory birds around the world are suffering population declines from the pressures of habitat loss, pollution, pesticides and predators. In addition, bird collisions with windows are a growing cause for concern. In Minneapolis and St. Paul, Project Bird Safe · Lights Out has been launched as a collaborative effort to monitor the extent of the bird collision problem in Minnesota and to design and implement potential solutions.

BirdSafe’s current focus is on two important activities that address bird-window collisions:

• a Lights Out program for Minneapolis/St. Paul and other interested cities, and
• a research and monitoring program to quantify the collision problem in Minnesota and add data to the existing knowledge base.

Why Lights Out?
Most birds migrate at night and can be drawn off course by tall, lighted structures in their flight path. Scientists aren’t sure why this happens but it may be related to the fact that among many navigational cues, birds use the stars to stay on course. Lighted skyscrapers may simply confuse them. Once in among the lights, birds seem reluctant to fly out. Sometimes they strike buildings or rooftop structures outright. Sometimes they continue flying in circles around the lighted buildings until they drop to the rooftop or the ground from exhaustion. Lights Out programs can dramatically reduce these collisions.

Over 250 species migrate through Minnesota, many of them small songbirds such as warblers, thrushes, tanagers and sparrows that migrate at night. Some of these are threatened species whose populations already show steep declines. Ironically, common city birds such as rock pigeons and house sparrows are infrequent collision victims. This may be due to these species’ adaptations for living among buildings.

Other Lights Out benefits
Besides saving birds, the Lights Out program saves a considerable amount of energy and reduces pollution by reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The savings for a building can be significant. One participating municipal building in the Toronto Lights Out program reported a savings of more than $200,000 in 2006.

How does Lights Out work?
Lights Out is a voluntary program where building owners, managers and tenants work together to ensure that all unnecessary lighting is turned off during Lights Out dates and times.

Lights Out dates and times
The spring Lights Out period runs from March 15 to May 31, and the fall period is from August 15 to October 31, between midnight and dawn.

You can help
You can help with the Light Outs research and monitoring effort by volunteering as a building monitor to survey buildings during migration for fallen birds. Training will be provided at a three-hour training session to be held each spring in the Ecology Building, on the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus. Complete the volunteer form and fax or e-mail it to the address on the form.

Lights Out is a joint effort
Lights Out in Minnesota is a joint effort by Audubon Minnesota, the Department of Natural Resources’ Nongame Wildlife Program, the Bell Museum of Natural History, the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, Bird Conservation Minnesota, the Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union, and the National Parks Service.