Lights Out Wake

Lights Out Wake (formerly Lights Out Raleigh)

Wake Audubon is excited to announce we have renamed Lights Out Raleigh to Lights Out Wake. Scroll to the bottom of this page to take our Lights Out Pledge.

Raleigh is the flagship Lights Out program in North Carolina as the first city to establish a lights out policy for all municipal buildings.  With renewed interest in Raleigh and recent publicity, the lights out message has spread to nearby municipalities.  Wake Audubon members are working with city staffs and we are hopeful that other programs will officially be announced.  The name change to Lights Out Wake reflects this growing support in other municipalities.

Lights Out Wake’s goal is to educate our members and communities on simple steps everyone can take to create safe passage for migrating birds.

Advances in technology, websites, on-line databases, and reporting mechanisms provide valuable resources to help reduce bird collisions with buildings.  The following websites can help everyone become a Lights Out Wake supporter:

BirdCast:  https://birdcast.info/

Recent work in aeroecology using weather radar to detect birds in flight has provided the tools to forecast seasonal bird migration across the United States.  Extra vigilance when a heavy migration night is forecast can help citizens mitigate fatal bird collisions.  Bird migration seasons for North Carolina are:

Fall:  September 10 – November 30

Spring:  March 15 – May 31

eBird:  https://ebird.org/

eBird provides an on-line checklist to record bird sightings at specific locations around the world.  The checklists are archived and available for data-driven approaches to science, conservation and education.  eBird checklists are used in the development of BirdCast migration forecasts and to verify accuracy.

dBird:  https://dbird.org/

dBird is an online crowd-sourced data collection tool for the public to report incidents of dead and injured birds.  Reports will help guide our research and advocacy efforts to reduce human-caused hazards to birds.  dBird was developed and expanded across North America by NYC Audubon and Seattle Audubon as part of their Lights Out programs.


We invite you to become a Lights Out Wake participant by taking the pledge to use bird-friendly steps during spring and fall migration between the hours of 11:00 PM and 6:00 AM to create safe passage for migrating birds.

Click here for residents or click here for commercial buildings.

For more information about Lights Out Wake, email:   [email protected].