New York State is calling on residents to turn off non-essential outdoor lighting during migration seasons to prevent bird deaths caused by light pollution.<\/p>\n
The Department of Environmental Conservation and Office of General Services are promoting the \u201cLights Out\u201d initiative, which directs state-owned and managed buildings to dim non-essential outdoor lighting from 11 p.m. to dawn during peak migration periods. The spring migration runs from April 15 through May 31, while the fall migration extends from Aug. 15 through Nov. 15.<\/p>\n
Many species of shorebirds and songbirds rely on constellations to navigate to and from their summer breeding grounds throughout the state. Excessive outdoor lighting, especially in adverse weather conditions, can disorient migrating birds through a phenomenon known as fatal light attraction. This disorientation leads to collisions with windows, walls, floodlights and the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cNYC Bird Alliance research shows artificial light contributes to hundreds of thousands of bird deaths in New York City every year,\u201d said Dr. Dustin Patridge, director of conservation and science at NYC Bird Alliance. \u201cTurning off lights saves birds, saves money, and makes New York a more livable environment for people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Burger, vice president of the National Audubon Society in New York, said a single building can disorient and kill hundreds of birds in one night.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy turning off lights between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., we can dramatically reduce the number of birds lost to collisions each year,\u201d Burger said. <\/p>\n
State agencies are also encouraged to draw blinds when possible and turn off non-essential indoor lighting during Lights Out times. The initiative promotes sustainability and provides cost savings to the state.<\/p>\n
Residents can assist by minimizing overnight lighting at their homes and properties. The DEC encourages New Yorkers to plant native plants and trees, remove invasive plants and make windows more visible to birds to minimize collisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York State is calling on residents to turn off non-essential outdoor lighting during migration seasons to prevent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[113,9,24,55,54,56,901],"class_list":{"0":"post-203580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-buffalo","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-city-news","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-united-states"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}