Rodin College House hosts event to raise awareness about bird migration

Rodin College House hosted a “Lights Out Night Out” event on Friday to bring awareness to the impact of light on bird migration. 

The event, which ran from 10 p.m. to midnight, allowed students to watch the Philadelphia skyline go dark at midnight to aid birds migrating to the south. Attendees socialized in the Rodin rooftop lounge and listened to a presentation by College first year and event coordinator Victoria Sindlinger. 

Complementary boba, pizza, and homemade cookies were provided at the event. Sindlinger gave out handmade origami birds, stickers, and pamphlets about bird migration for attendees to take home.

Lights Out is a voluntary agreement between major skyscrapers of Philadelphia to turn off and block external and internal building lights during the spring and fall migration period, which occurs from April 1 to May 31 and from Aug. 15 to Nov. 15. During these periods, artificial light is minimized from midnight to 6 a.m.

Even though most bird migration occurs before midnight, Sindlinger explained that the time frame is a compromise between building owners who want their buildings to have lights and nature activists who want to help birds. 

“I’ve loved birds basically my entire life,” Singlider said. “The issue of window collisions has always been something that I’ve been especially passionate about.”

Sindlinger explained at the event that more than 80% of migrating birds travel at night because the stars help birds navigate. However, artificial lights and transparent glass surfaces can confuse birds, causing them to collide with buildings and die.

Sindlinger said that migrating birds are coming from wild areas, so “many of them have never seen a window before. They have no idea that a tree that they see reflected is not a tree they can actually fly into.”

In October 2020, 1,500 birds died in a single night while migrating in Philadelphia.

Sindlinger reached out to Penn Sustainability to plan the event, where she was connected with three student eco-reps who work for the Bird Friendly Penn branch of Penn Sustainability. With the help of eco-reps College junior Zade Dohman, College junior Maddie Pastore, and College sophomore Alaina Steck, Sindlinger gathered handouts for attendees and contacted Rodin College House to host the event.

Previously, the University had yard signs on campus to advocate for students to turn their lights off at night, Dohman said. “Lights Out Night Out” is the first time Penn hosted an event to bring awareness to bird collisions, and Dohman said discussing the issue in person is “a lot more beneficial.”

Sindlinger encourages Penn students to minimize the light they emit at night. 

“It's enough to just pull the shades and just keep that light inside,” she said. “Small changes like that really count.”