WILD NEST BIRD REHAB, INC. SIGNS ON AS LIGHTS OUT GEORGIA PARTICIPANT (Feb 2022) – We recently signed on as a participant in the Lights Out Georgia Program to help reduce bird deaths caused by building collisions. Lights Out Georgia was launched in March 2017 as a joint project between Georgia Audubon and the Atlanta Better Buildings Challenge (ABBC). “Georgia Audubon is delighted to welcome Wild Nest to the Lights Out Georgia program, and we appreciate their commitment to making our state a safer place for our migratory and resident birds,” says Adam Betuel, Georgia Audubon director of conservation. “The goal of the Lights Out Georgia Program is to reduce collision-related bird deaths and make our state more bird friendly.” 

Each year, an estimated 350 million to 1 billion birds die in the United States after colliding with buildings. The problem is particularly bad during spring and fall migration. Lights Out Georgia is a voluntary program encouraging commercial properties and homeowners to turn off or reduce lighting during peak bird migration periods, March 15 to May 31 (spring) and August 15 to November 15 (fall), between the hours of 12:00 midnight and 6:00 AM.

Studies have shown that bird deaths during peak migration periods can be dramatically reduced when exterior architectural and unnecessary lighting is turned off. Lights Out Georgia has an additional benefit of reducing energy usage and cost to help properties achieve their sustainability goals. Lights Out Georgia Commercial Participants Pledge to:

• Turn off exterior decorative lighting

• Extinguish spot and flood-lights

• Substitute strobe lighting where possible

• Reduce lobby and atrium lighting where possible

• Turn off interior lighting, especially on upper floors

• Substitute task and area lighting for workers staying late

• Down-shield exterior lighting or limit to ground level 

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Each year Wild Nest receives hundreds of songbirds suffering from window collision injuries. Many of them have severe traumatic injuries, and we work to rehabilitate those birds that have a chance of recovery and release back to the wild. While we are able to save some of these birds, sadly, some never recover. Please visit Georgia Audubon's Conservation page to learn more about how to prevent bird window collisions and join us by signing the Lights Out Georgia Pledge that applies to you. There are separate pledges for business and residential situations.

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