Lights Out, Texas!

Lights Out, Texas! is a community-driven education campaign that asks residences, businesses, and institutions across the Central Flyway to turn off or dim nonessential lights at night during peak spring and fall migration while also addressing window reflections and transparency during the day to reduce bird collisions. 

Texas is globally important for birds. Approximately one out of every three to four birds migrating through the U.S. passes through Texas in one of the planet’s greatest wildlife spectacles. Unfortunately, excess light pollution and urbanization often affect birds by disorienting them and causing them to strike buildings. It isthe top human-related cause of death for birds.  

When cities and towns along migration corridors adopt Lights Out practices, they collectively reduce cumulative mortality at critical stopover and passage sites, bolster population resilience, and amplify the effectiveness of habitat protection and policy measures across the full annual cycle of migratory species — producing measurable benefits for birds throughout the Americas.  

The Lights Out, Texas! campaign inspires community action to turn off non-essential lights at home and advocate for long-term policy change for communities to pass bird-safe building ordinances—a win for residents who no longer witness traumatic collisions and instead get to enjoy healthy urban centers with thoughtful lighting and design for all our feathered friends making their hemispheric journey to nest or rest.  

Lighting Guidelines For Everyone

• Turn off all non-essential lights from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. each night during migration season.
• Do not use landscape lighting to light up trees or gardens where birds may be resting.
• Close blinds at night to reduce the amount of light being emitted from windows.  

For essential lights (like security lighting), use the following dark sky-friendly lighting practices:

• Aim lights down.
• Use lighting shields to direct light downwards and to avoid light shining into the sky or trees.
• Use motion detectors and sensors so lights are only on when you need them.

Additional Guidelines for Buildings Taller Than Three Stories:

• Extinguish or dim: Exterior and decorative lighting (i.e., spotlights, logos, clock faces, greenhouses, and antenna lighting); lobby/atrium lighting; and lighting in perimeter rooms on all levels of the building.
• Avoid floodlights illuminating interior plants or fountains, and unoccupied floors; scheduling cleaning crews after dark; and blue-rich white light emissions (lighting with a color temperature of more than 3000 Kelvin).
• Use desk lamps or task lighting rather than overhead lights, blinking lighting in place of continuously burning lights, and warm light sources (less than 3000 Kelvin) for outdoor lighting.

What’s Good For Birds is Good For People

Birds are vitally important to the environment and benefit us in a variety of ways. Turning off non-essential lights or shielding essential ones is also good for people! Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) can negatively impact our health, from sleep deprivation to depression to heart disease. By turning off lights, we protect birds, ourselves, save money, and reduce carbon pollution! It’s a win-win. 

Reduce Collisions at Any Time With Bird-Friendly Glass

Birds can’t see glass.  Instead, they see whatever happens to be reflected in its mirror-like surface as a continuation of habitat and clear glass as an open passageway, putting migratory and resident birds at risk of building collisions. It’s estimated that between one hundred million and one billion birds die every year in collisions with manmade structures—one of the biggest killers of migratory birds.  Bird-safe glass is specially designed to make glass a visible obstacle to birds. A variety of approaches, such as fritting, silk-screening, or ultraviolet coating, create a pattern that breaks up the reflectivity of the glass and alerts birds to its presence. To learn more about bird-friendly glass for homes and businesses, start here.

With your help, we can dramatically reduce the hazards posed by light pollution and bird collisions in cities nationwide and allow birds to resume their typical migratory behaviors.