Switch off light! Save birds!

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Switch off the light between 12:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. to save millions of birds! Yes, that’s what the government of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is asking the people to do. Wondering why and how? I was also surprised and asked the same questions – why should we switch the lights off? how does night lights affect the birds?

Firstly, migrating birds are birds of certain species that move between breeding grounds and wintering grounds during seasonal changes. They mostly fly from the north to the south and vice-versa and follow a certain flight path. The migration of birds such as storks, turtle doves, and swallows was recorded by Greeks almost 3,000 years ago.

Some species of birds prefer to fly through the night to avoid day-heat and their predators. They can also feed during the day. During the night flight, they use the night sky with stars and constellations to navigate. But when there are night lights, especially from Skyscrapers, they cannot see the sky clearly. These night lights from such tall buildings confuse them and at times they lose their path. More importantly, the birds think of the night lights like stars and begin to fly low often crashing into the buildings. Such crashes kill them. The government of Philadelphia is trying to protect these birds by asking its citizens to switch off the lights.

Back in our own state, Ranganathittu near Srirangapatna is known to attract migratory birds. The bird sanctuary with its islets attracts as many as 40,000+ birds assemble during the winter season from November to January. We can leave bowls of water and grains in the bird feeders (which we developed in our English class) on our terraces to feed the migratory birds.