The theme of this year’s World Migratory Bird Day, “Dim the Light for Birds at Night!” invites everyone to dim unnecessary lights at night to reduce light pollution for the safe passage of migratory birds. Light pollution is an increasing global problem that also impacts migrating birds – especially those who fly or migrate at night as it can not only disorient them and cause them to collide into buildings, but also disrupt their biological rhythms. WMBD this year hopes to bring this issue to light and encourage concrete actions from key stakeholders to address it.
1. World Migratory Bird Day Global Light Pollution Webinars
Session 1: Overview of Light Pollution Impact
It focuses on the impacts of light pollution on birds and will wrap up our 2022 events and activities, identify the results of key research, and highlight the ways that we can become involved in minimizing the impacts, whether as a country, a city, a community, a neighborhood, or an individual.
Date/Time: 6th October, 2022 11 am New York Time /5pm Bonn Time/ 2 am Canberra Time (7th October Canberra time)
Session 2: Solutions and Policies to tackle Light Pollution
It focuses on the solutions to tackle the impact of light pollution on migratory birds with the perspective from global, national, and city levels. The Australian Government will be presenting the National Light Pollution Guidelines for Wildlife in this session
Date/Time: 7th October, 2022, 3am New York Time/9am Bonn time/6pm Canberra time
2. The Invisible Natural Spectacle Happening Over Our Heads As We Sleep: Nocturnal Bird Migration In Beijing
A groundbreaking new study in autumn 2021 by Peking University and Birding Beijing used acoustic surveys – from the roof of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) headquarters in Beijing – to gain an insight into this invisible natural spectacle over China’s capital city. The results are staggering, with more than 34,000 calls recorded from more than 60 species, including woodland, grassland and wetland species. At a special seminar in September 2022 the Beijing Government and AIIB signed a letter of intent to cooperate on this study, including sharing the data to inform land management policies in China’s capital so that the city can fulfill its role in the flyway – to facilitate safe passage for these migratory birds.
Together with Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), Environment for the Americas (EFTA), and Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds(UNEP-AEWA) as organizers, the WMBD official website provides a key social media package including the global poster, click [here], and visit the Trello boardfor news and resources. In this WMBD campaign strategy, you can find the key messages for the WMBD 2022.
The EAAFP Secretariat translated the global poster into 15 languages in the EAA Flyway. We also produced a factsheet on Light Pollution.
The Australian Government developed the National Light Pollution Guidelines for Wildlife, which provides a framework for assessing and managing impacts of light pollution on our native wildlife.The guideline has been endorsed during the Thirteenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. You can find animations, factsheets and other resources [here].
Credit: Australian Government
An animation by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Follow a small songbird as it is lured into the dangers of the city by intense lights. The threats it faces are common for migrating birds trying to navigate urban environments. By turning out nonessential lighting at night, birds are less likely to become disoriented on their long journeys. You can find more videos with different languages: Click [here]
Let’s take action to reduce Light Pollution for migratory birds!
