Lights out, Bucks County. It’s for the birds.

Kudos to Doylestown Borough for its “Lights Out Doylestown” initiative.

The Bucks County Audubon Society encourages all Bucks County municipalities to follow Doylestown’s example by asking businesses and residents to turn out the lights during birds’ fall migration, which is already underway.

Billions of birds migrate north in the spring and south in the fall, mainly flying at night. As they pass over population centers, a number of human-made hazards can impede their journey and lights can cause a number of problems.

Artificial lights and sky glow can cause them to become disoriented, colliding with windows or buildings. Lights can throw birds off of their migration paths, but more often the birds become exhausted in their confusion, flying around, wasting precious energy and becoming vulnerable to other threats.

Lights Out is a national effort that we can all contribute to. Bucks County sits in the middle of the Atlantic Flyway, a major north-south migratory route. Spanning over 3,000 miles, the route generally starts in Greenland, then follows the Atlantic Coast of Canada, then south along the Atlantic Coast of the United States to the tropical areas of South America and the Caribbean.

Since it is the most densely populated of the four flyways that cross the United States, we should provide whatever assistance we can to the birds flying overhead.

Everyone can contribute to Lights Out. Try these simple steps:

Contribute to Lights Out between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.

• Turn off exterior decorative lighting.

• Extinguish pot and floodlights.

• Install motion sensors and automatic controls wherever possible.

• Reduce atrium lighting wherever possible.

• Turn off interior lighting, especially on higher stories.

• Substitute task and area lighting for workers staying late, or pull window coverings.

• Down-shield exterior lighting to eliminate horizontal glare and all light directed upward.

• When converting to new lighting, assess quality and quantity of light needed, avoiding over-lighting with newer, brighter technology.

Together, we are what hope looks like to a bird.

Diane L. Smith is the director of education at the Bucks County Audubon Society at Honey Hollow in Solebury.

Join our readers whose generous donations are making it possible for you to read our news coverage. Help keep local journalism alive and our community strong. Donate today.