Lights Out K-W Building Challenge!
It's migration season!
Keep birds flying high by turning off non-essential lighting from 11pm – 6am.
Most birds migrate at night, and brightly lit buildings can confuse and disorient them on their journey, resulting in deadly collisions.
Join area leaders in avian conservation to dim the lights for migrating birds.
We're calling on public buildings and commercial properties in Waterloo Region to step up and join the Lights Out K-W Building Challenge this spring.
The Challenge
Participants pledge to:
- Reduce 75% of non-essential lighting during migration periods
- Share the Lights Out message with employees, tenants, and networks.
Eligible Participants
Anyone! This includes municipal offices, schools, public buildings, and commercial
properties in Waterloo Region.
Levels of Participation and Key Migration Periods
The full participation commitment lasts from March 15 to June 1 to protect the full
suite of spring migrants. We ask for a minimum lights out observance between April 15
and May 15 when the largest numbers of birds move through the area.
How I Can Help: Resources
Why It Matters
An estimated 1 billion birds are killed annually in North America by collisions with buildings. Birds are most vulnerable during migration.
Species making their twice-yearly journeys of thousands of kilometres travel at night because cooler temperatures, favourable wind patterns, and reduced risk from predators make nocturnal migration safer and more efficient.
Birds are drawn toward brightly lit structures, causing confusion and disorientation. Many either strike the building or land in urban spaces, only to take off at dawn and fly into glass that reflects sky or vegetation.
Benefits of Participation
- Wildlife Protection: Help reduce light pollution during spring and fall migration, when bright night lighting can disorient birds and increase window-collision risk
- Healthier Night Environment: Support a darker, more natural nightscape that benefits local ecosystems affected by artificial light at night
- Energy & Cost Savings: Lower electricity use and operating costs by switching off unnecessary lighting and right-sizing what stays on
- Civic & Organizational Leadership: Demonstrate visible environmental stewardship aligned with Kitchener's Bird Friendly City momentum and community conservation efforts
- Community Connection: Join a growing network of residents and organizations taking practical action to make Kitchener safer for birds
- Public Recognition: Participating sites can be highlighted through our initiative's communications
How to Join Bird Friendly Kitchener and Participate in Lights Out K-W
- Commit your home or building by contacting us
- Take action by reducing externally visible overnight lighting during migration periods
- If a larger building or business, designate a participation coordinator and share with us your accomplishments
When you join the challenge, we will provide you with best practice checklists and sample communications materials. If you choose, we would be happy to include your organization's logo on our website and give you proper recognition in our newsletter and social media posts.
The Campaign
Lights Out K-W is a new initiative of Bird Friendly Kitchener targeting non-essential lighting in the Waterloo Region. Aiming to ensure a darker night sky, and minimize attraction, we encourage buildings and homes to go lights out during bird migration seasons. This effort follows on and reinforces our migratory season bird-glass collision monitoring program.
Throughout fall and spring migrations, collision surveys are conducted daily along set routes in downtown Kitchener to assess dangers to migratory birds. During these early morning surveys, volunteers document and collect bird-building collision fatalities and rescue stunned and injured birds.
Bird Friendly Kitchener volunteers use this data to engage property owners, property managers, and tenants to encourage them to install window treatments to break up the reflective appearance of glass surfaces. We have also partnered with properties such as the Kitchener Public Library to install bird-friendly glass treatments to windows.
