BUFFALO, N.Y. — This time of year is the peak of bird migration season.

Cornell’s BirdCast model has shown a million birds migrating across parts of our state in one night. You can help them safely migrate. 

Birds use the stars for navigation. Lights confuse them, and they end up colliding with buildings. This is a phenomenon known as Fatal Light Attraction. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it results in an estimated 500 million to a billion birds dying annually in the United States.

To help, New York State adopted a lights-out policy where state-owned buildings turn off unnecessary lights. It’s underway through the end of the month. But we can help, too. Especially if you live in the Atlantic flyway.

“Birds are traveling from South and Central America to their nesting areas, sometimes around here, sometimes further north," said John Whitney, Co-Chair of WNY Environmental Alliance. "And they do that year after year, decade after decade, century after century."

The Niagara River corridor is one of the main corridors.

“Every light is a distraction," said Jay Burney of the WNY Environmental Alliance. "And so private property owners, private building owners, can definitely turn their lights out between the hours of, say, 10 p.m. and dawn, during spring migration season, which we're in the middle of right now. Birds are important because they really support biodiversity. Biodiversity is important because it helps make ecosystems healthy. Ecosystems make us all healthy. Ecosystems and ecosystem services create things like clean water, clean air, and healthy food opportunities.”

Fall migration is Aug. 15 through Nov. 15. And if you think about it, Lights Out promotes sustainability, and it cuts the costs of electric bills. WNY Environmental Alliance is working to expand this effort from the state level to cities and towns across the state.