Hundreds of thousands of birds travel through Cumberland County at night as they fly south for the winter, but light pollution attracts and disorients these nocturnal passengers, threatening their safe passage to warmer climates.
These birds are vulnerable to collisions with brightly lit buildings, but the county’s new Lights Out initiative aims to reduce these risks by turning off non-essential lights on county buildings during peak fall migration times this October and November.
The county will shut off light on all non-essential county buildings from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. until the end of the migratory season on Nov. 30. The measure is part of a national Lights Out initiative that aims to protect birds by reducing harmful light pollution, ensuring safe passage for these avian travelers.
According to BirdCast’s bird migration dashboard, which tracks live migration patterns throughout the country, a staggering 78.2 million birds have crossed over Cumberland County since August during fall migration. The highest number of birds flying over the county during fall migration occurred on the night of Oct. 5, when approximately 7.2 million birds flew over the county, with a peak flight traffic of 913,000 birds.
According to the United States Geological Survey, migratory birds are essential to ecosystems: They help control pests, pollinate plants and feed other wildlife. In addition, millions of people enjoy watching and supporting these birds by creating backyard habitats and their safety allows scientists to study them. New research confirms over one billion birds are killed annually in the United States from building collisions — significantly higher than previous estimates.
Glenn Adams, chairperson of the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners, said he brought the initiative to the city manager.
“There’s a balance of nature and humans and everything else, and we need to do whatever we can to try to make them safe,” Adams said of the birds. “And it’s just not a big ask to just cut off the lights.”
Cumberland County is part of the Atlantic Flyway, a major migration route for birds traveling between their breeding grounds in the north and their wintering grounds in the south. According to Birdcast, some of the most frequent nocturnal migratory birds are the yellow-rumped warbler, white-throated sparrow, dark-eyed junco, northern parula, swamp sparrow, winter wren, savannah sparrow and yellow-bellied sapsucker.
Adams indicated the Lights Out initiative touches on wider concerns he has about growth in rural areas of the county, where wildlife is disrupted by new developments.
“Part of some of the issues that I have sometimes, especially when we’re rezoning property here in the rural area, is that we’re moving into these animals’ habitats,” Adams told CityView. “And then we get upset when we see them because, ‘Oh, there’s a coyote or there’s something.’ But we moved into their territory. It’s not like they came to us.”
Adams said turning the lights off during the migratory season is part of the county’s larger sustainability initiatives, which will emphasize upgrading buildings to be more sustainable.
“As we move forward on the buildings that we’re building, we need to think about being green and not adding to any of the issues that’s already there. The greener we can be, the better it is for the environment and the better it is for everyone else.”
In order to protect these migratory birds, the county urges residents and businesses to take simple steps through migration season. This includes closing blinds and curtains, turning off the lights at office spaces at the end of the work day, turning off exterior lights (especially upward-facing ones) and shutting off the lights inside from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Contact Evey Weisblat at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com or 216-527-3608. This story was made possible by donations from readers like you to CityView News Fund, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to an informed democracy in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.
Wonderful we are thinking of wildlife. I was beginning to think people really didn’t care.