Bird news
Downtown Dallas buildings dim lights to sortof help migrating birds
Bird migration season is underway.
An initiative to help birds returns to downtown Dallas, although it's kind of a halfway measure. Called Lights Out Texas, it's an effort undertaken to protect birds during their twice-a-year migration.
Every spring and fall, nearly two billion birds travel through Texas at night, one of the largest migrations on the planet, and one that cuts right through Dallas-Fort Worth.
Lights attract these migrating birds, and disorients them on their journey, causing them to collide into building windows and walls and die. It's the second biggest cause of death for migratory birds.
According to figures from Lights Out Texas, approximately one billion birds die in collisions with buildings in the U.S.
Texas is suspected to be particularly hazardous, due to the high illumination in big cities.
The intiative was founded by Houston Audubon after a big bird wipeout in 2017 when hundreds of birds died in Galveston. The movement got a major push after Texan By Nature, a conservation group founded by former First Lady Laura Bush, got involved.
“The light emanating from cities like Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston attracts and disorients birds, leaving them confused and vulnerable," Bush said in a statement. "Large numbers of light-related collisions have been documented in cities across the country for decades, including here in Texas.”
Residents and businesses are also encouraged to turn off nonessential lights at night.
Downtown buildings started observing Lights Out Texas in 2020, and a release says they are doing so again this year, beginning September 20 and continuing through October 10, between 11 pm-5 am.
According to the release, Reunion Tower and other buildings will dim their lights to 50 percent. Is the initiative called "Lights Dimmed"? No, it's called Lights Out.
Since light attracts these migrating birds, why dim? Why not out?
