Noise Pollution

If you have ever participated in NestWatch or Project FeederWatch, your data may have informed the study summarized in How Noise Pollution Can Negatively Impact Bird Populations which finds that birds are significantly affected by noise, including while trying either to attract mates via song, establish nests, or listen for predators, and that noise pollution can increase birds’ stress levels and reduce their sizes and life spans.

You can limit the noise by using electric or human-powered lawn equipment rather than gas powered, such as raking leaves instead of using a leaf blower, keeping music volumes at outdoor events at a modest level,

encouraging your community to set aside one day a week not to mow, and limiting the use of fireworks to July 4th.

Light Pollution

Artificial light disrupts natural behavior for migrating birds and for flying insects..

Some species of migrating birds are drawn to lighted buildings and structures and can become confused, circling for hours until they are exhausted. This is often in urban settings where landing puts them at risk of window collisions during the day, lack of protective cover, food, and water.. Stay informed about what species are birds are migrating through your area in the spring and fall with Bird Cast Migration Tools . Learn more about how you can help from the Lights Out program.

Outdoor lighting is a magnet for many nocturnal insects and is contributing to the rapid decline in insect populations. Light Pollution is contributing to the Insect Apocalypse. Artificial light at night can affect every aspect of insects’ lives, the researchers said, from luring moths to their deaths around bulbs, to spotlighting insect prey for rats and toads, to obscuring the mating signals of fireflies. We can help by using warm-spectrum LED lights bulbs 3,000 K or less (which don’t attract moths) and by installing motion-detectors to control essential lighting, assuming any outdoor lighting is needed at all. Lighting up our properties at night is as rude to our non-human neighbors as playing loud music outdoors is to our human ones, only with more lethal consequences.

View an online program, World Migratory Bird Day: Lights Out For Birds, recorded on May 5, 2022, about bird migration, how it can be impacted by light pollution, and how you can reduce this risk on your property.