PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia skyline will be a bit dimmer at night starting April 1, when “Lights Out Philly” goes into effect for a third year.
The initiative is an effort to reduce artificial light used by commercial and residential buildings at night, which experts say can confuse migrating birds and cause them to crash into windows and walls as they make their way through the city.
A mass collision event on Oct. 2, 2020, prompted the formation of Bird Safe Philly. On that single day, thousands of birds were killed in Center City after striking buildings.
Bird Safe Philly, comprising members of the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club and various chapters of the Audubon Society, launched “Lights Out Philly” in April 2021. Since then, 100 commercial, residential and municipal participants have signed up to turn off or dim lights at night to prevent bird strikes in Philadelphia during spring and fall migrations.
“We have had wonderful participation, and that has really been a result of our partnership with the Building Owners Managers Association as well as the Building Industry Association, and they’ve really gotten the word out to their buildings, to their partners, and really it has just been a matter of education to the general public on what they can do,” said Connie Sanchez, national coordinator with the National Audubon Society’s bird-friendly buildings program.
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More than 40 U.S. cities do their own “lights out,” collecting and sharing data with each other.
“Philly has done a wonderful job. Really, just in the past couple of years, we’ve gotten a lot of engagement with buildings and community members and government officials, corporate partners,” Sanchez said.
Philadelphia is still in the early stages of collecting data but, the group says, one participating property in Center City has seen a 70% decline in bird strikes during the fall migration periods over the past couple of years.