HOUSTON \u2013 Texas is one of the most critical corridors in the country for migratory birds \u2014 but for some of them, the journey ends early in downtown Houston.<\/p>\n
According to Audubon Texas, approximately one in every three to four birds migrating through the country passes through the state. This fall, residents and wildlife advocates are noticing a higher number of hummingbirds than usual \u2014 and a troubling number of them aren\u2019t completing their journey south.<\/p>\n
Dmitri Salafonov spends much of his free time taking long walks through the city. During fall migration season, those walks come with a heavy emotional toll.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou feel very helpless when you\u2019re standing out there by an intersection and just raiding dead hummingbirds,\u201d Salafonov said.<\/p>\n
He says the problem has grown significantly in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree years ago, usually one bird, two birds, three birds, and recently I was able to pick up between 12 to 15 birds and even more,\u201d Salafonov said.<\/p>\n
Weather, buildings a deadly combination<\/p>\n
Wyatt Egelhoff with Birds Houston says this year\u2019s conditions may be making things worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cWeather patterns can affect how birds are concentrated during migration,\u201d Egelhoff said.<\/p>\n
Egelhoff explains that hummingbirds typically migrate at altitudes that clear most skyscrapers. Many collisions, he says, happen when birds descend to local parks in search of food \u2014 putting them directly in the flight path of glass-covered buildings.<\/p>\n
Solutions don\u2019t have to be costly<\/p>\n
The good news: fixes don\u2019t require a major investment. Bird collision tape \u2014 a simple deterrent that can be applied directly to glass \u2014 runs about $25 a roll. Egelhoff also suggests that downtown skyscrapers could simply turn off their lights between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. during peak migration periods.<\/p>\n
Several Houston-area buildings have already committed to the \u201cLights Out Texas\u201d initiative, and advocates are pushing for more to sign on.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we are killing, and we\u2019re responsible for \u2014 as we\u2019re responsible for helping,\u201d Salafonov said.<\/p>\n
The goal now is momentum \u2014 more buildings, more awareness and, ultimately, more birds completing their flight south.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Texas is one of the most critical corridors in the country for migratory birds \u2014 but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[142686,56,58,57,106844,851],"class_list":["post-438461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-audubon-texas","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-peak-migration","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}