The Friends of Little Hunting Creek joined forces with other environmental organizations to make northern Virginia safer for birds. North America’s bird population has declined by 3 billion birds – nearly 30% – since 1970. The principal causes of the decline are habitat loss and hazards created by humans. Window collisions are the third leading cause of bird deaths.
There are three parts to the Bird Safe NOVA campaign.
Lights Out for Birds
More than 100 million birds migrate north through northern Virginia each spring, and 160 million birds migrate south in the fall. Most migrate at night to take advantage of calmer winds and lower temperatures, relying on the moon and the stars to navigate. The birds are disoriented by bright lights from tall buildings and crash into them or fly around and around the lights, exhausting themselves.
Bird Safe NOVA’s Lights Out for Birds campaign urges commercial buildings to voluntarily turn off or block as many external and internal building lights at workplaces as possible at night to prevent the death or injury of migrating birds. The key times to reduce lighting are during peak migration, which in northern Virginia is from 11 PM to sunrise, March 15 through May 31 and September 1 through November 15.
To help, send an email to advocacy@nvbirdalliance.org to volunteer to join a team of volunteers who will recruit commercial buildings to join the effort. Advocacy efforts begin in 2025.
Restore the Night
Artificial lighting is increasing globally by about 10% per year. Light pollution — unshielded, misaimed, too bright, too white and on-all-night lights – disrupts wildlife and impacts human health.
To reduce light pollution originating on your property, implement DarkSky International’s Five Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting.
Bird-Safe Buildings
More than one billion birds die from collisions with buildings in the United States each year. The birds mistake the reflection of trees and vegetation in a window for open space and fly into it.
To help prevent bird deaths, follow these suggestions to make your windows more visible to birds.
Learn more about the Bird Safe NOVA campaign and how to help here. Partners are the Northern Virginia Bird Alliance, Friends of Dyke Marsh, Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy, Nature Forward, DarkSky NOVA, and DarkSky Virginia.
Photo credit: Purple Martins migrating at night, Keith Kingman
