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It’s peak fall migration season here in the Ohio River Valley, which means that millions of songbirds are travelling overhead each night as they journey towards their overwintering grounds. People similarly flocked to the Cincinnati region for BLINK, the nation’s largest immersive art experience, last weekend to enjoy beautiful lighting displays across the urban landscape. As the lights shut off at the festival’s conclusion, we can likewise commit to turning out the lights to ensure that our feathered friends can safely navigate the night skies during their journeys south!

In urban regions like Cincinnati, artificial light pollution takes a toll on both people and animals. In humans, light pollution can cause health issues and impact our circadian rhythms, confusing our bodies’ biological clocks and making it more difficult to get a good night’s rest. Birds and other wildlife are similarly impacted, which can be especially harmful during spring and fall migration periods. Migrating birds rely on their environmental sensory cues and biological instincts to guide them, and bright artificial lighting can confuse their internal navigation and throw them off track.

Going “Lights Out” for birds is one of the most impactful actions you can take during the migration season! The easiest way to do this is to simply turn off your interior and outdoor lighting at night, especially between midnight and dawn. Even if you don’t want to go completely dark, there are still ways you can reduce your artificial light output to channel your inner oornithophile (bird-lover)!

• Use automatic dimmers, motion sensors, or timers so that lights are only on when needed
• Switch out bright white and blue LED lightbulbs with warmer colors like amber, orange, or red, which are less attractive to birds and other wildlife
• Use shielded lights or aim light beams towards the ground
• Draw curtains and close blinds at night to prevent light from spilling out of buildings
• Remove or turn off decorative exterior lighting

There are plenty of other actions you can take to help both our migratory visitors and our year-round backyard birds—learn more by visiting the Zoo’s Saving Songbirds resource hub!

Just as Cincinnatians and visitors alike came together to celebrate art and lighting during BLINK, it is now time to stick together on that united front to be allies of migrating birds. By turning off our lights, we can act as considerate members of the flock. To see the number of birds our efforts are directly impacting, you can check out the night’s migration forecast using Birdcast!

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