Photo: Purple Martins, Keith Kingdon/Audubon Photography Awards
Original program date: April 15, 2026
ZOOM PASSCODE: nKyn03#q
Find out how important it is to reduce outdoor lighting, particularly during bird migration, and make buildings safer for birds.
Over 100 million birds will migrate through northern Virginia in this spring, and eighty percent of our migrating birds travel at night. They use a variety of cues to keep themselves on track, including the stars. For that reason, excessive lights at night can be deadly for them. Some birds crash into buildings at night, injuring or killing themselves, and others can be distracted from their migration routes, flying around lights and wasting the energy they need to reach their destinations. During daylight, birds mistake reflective glass surfaces for open space, fly into them and die. Over 1 billion birds die from building collisions in the United States each year.
Hear from our speakers Joelle Gehring, the Acting Assistant Regional Director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Migratory Bird Program, and Jo Anna Lutmerding, a Biologist, also with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Join them to learn how outdoor lights affect bird migration and birds’ health and reproduction throughout the year and how you can make buildings and houses safer for birds.
Note that this is a recorded Zoom meeting and you will need the passcode to view: nKyn03#q