LIMA, Ohio (WLIO) — Area business owners are learning how they can help make migration safer for birds as they travel through Ohio.
The coordinator of the Ohio Lights Out program, part of the Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative, spoke at Friday morning’s Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce Wake, Rattle, and Roll breakfast. The program, active in six of Ohio’s largest cities, encourages businesses to turn off non-essential lighting at night during migration seasons. Many migratory birds travel at night, using the moon and stars as navigational cues.
“So they’re using the moon and the stars to get to their destinations, especially going up into boreal Canada,” said Ohio Lights Out Coordinator Devin Mingesbruney. “And so with this increasing light on the landscape, it’s confounding our birds, causing confusion, and then they start colliding into windows in urban areas. This is why we ask people to turn down their lights during spring and fall migration, just to help them get on their journey.”
Experts also recommend making windows more visible to birds by adding markers, as birds cannot see glass. Tens of millions of birds die each year in the United States due to building collisions.
