Take action for migratory birds – Join Lights Out DC online!
Help City Wildlife save birds! If you see a dead bird on a sidewalk in Washington, DC, please take a picture and upload it to https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bird-safe-dc, entering the address where you found it. If the bird is still alive, call DC Animal Care and Control at (202) 576-6664. Or between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., bring the bird to City Wildlife, (202) 882-1000. You are most likely to find migrating birds in April, May, September, or October.
Your observations will give Lights Out DC a more accurate picture of the number of collisions happening and where they are occurring. The program coordinators use information on bird strikes to help building managers make their properties bird-safe.
In 2010, City Wildlife initiated its Lights Out DC program to monitor certain buildings in Washington, D.C. for migrating birds who strike windows while passing through the city. The information they collected helped pass a new District law that makes it mandatory for new buildings in D.C., as well as buildings undergoing major renovations, to use bird-friendly glass and other measures that keep birds from hitting windows.
Meanwhile, the volunteers continue to seek buildings that are killing and injuring birds and to talk to the building managers about steps they can take to save birds. They could use your help in finding out where the collisions are occurring.
For more information about City Wildlife’s program and data collected over the past 12 years, please visit: https://citywildlife.org/programs/lights-out-dc/
For more information and resources about bird-window collisions and how to prevent them, please visit:
https://abcbirds.org/glass-collisions/
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/why-birds-hit-windows-and-how-you-can-help-prevent-it/
https://www.audubon.org/news/reducing-collisions-glass
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