‘Flip a switch’: Calgarians encouraged to turn out the lights for birds

With the fall migration for birds underway, conservationists are asking Calgarians to make a change to help out.

Bird enthusiasts and conservationists are asking Calgarians to switch off their lights overnight this fall to protect migrating species.

Bird Friendly Calgary has launched its Lights Out for Birds campaign, which runs until Oct. 31.

The organization is asking everyone inside the city—and nearby—to flip off their home lights each night from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.

That’ll help millions of migratory birds flying through Alberta differentiate between pass-through and obstacle, drastically cutting back the number of fatal window strikes.

“It’s the easiest thing in the world to do,” Bird Friendly Calgary’s Sara Jordan-McLachlan said.

“Flip a switch and it’s going to make a huge difference.”

More than 16 million birds die from window strikes every year in Canada.

“And this time of year is even more important than spring migration, because now we have the young of the year,” Jordan-McLachlan said.

“All of those babies that were born this year are travelling and migrating for the first time ever, and it’s a lot for them to do because they don’t know the routes. There’s a lot of hazards that they can be drawn to on their first trip.”

Jordan-McLachlan says it’s already been a tough year for the 300 or so migrating species that fly through the area.

Between Aug. 9 and 13 last year, Calgary trackers located 11 birds that died from window strikes.

Over the same days this year, there have been 38 fatalities.

The increase can at least partially be chalked up to a change in weather patterns, causing an early migration.

The group’s John McFaul says there are also steps Calgarians can take in the daytime to cut back on that number.

“Now is also a really critical time for people to mark their windows to prevent them from being distracting for the birds migrating,” he told CTV News.

“The markings have to be close together—two inches apart—and you can just use sticker dots on the outside of the window.”

Jordan-McLachlan agrees and applauds those local buildings that have already taken steps to make their panes more noticeable.

“(Birds) might see those interior lights and think it looks like a nice open forest, and they see the round windows and think that that’s the trees they need to avoid. So they might fly directly into that light thinking it’s a safe place,” Jordan-McLachlan said.

“We need to do what we can to help them know what is safe.”