Besides help visual sensory, lights affect birds’ behavior and biology. Light pollution has been shown to change migration and nesting time, disorient migrating birds, disrupt hormones and sleep in birds and other wildlife, and contribute to declines in insects that birds eat.

As temperatures warm and plants bloom, eager birds await the arrival of summer residents like warblers, tanagers, vireos, and grosbeaks, the sights of light are a sure sign of spring of migrating birds. Light pollution in a city causes false signs of spring of mitigating birds, nesting, and mating time. This behavior change also affecting bird reproduction quantity and quality.

Excessive Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) can also disorient birds during migration, bright lights at night on large buildings attract birds in the same way that bright porch lights attract moths. Which can result in fatal collisions. A recent study estimates that between 100 million and one billion birds are killed in the United States each year as a result of collisions with buildings. Given that most songbirds migrate at night, it’s no surprise that light pollution is a significant contributor to the harm of these birds.

Same with humans and other living creatures, light pollution will disrupt the circadian rhythm that causes disrupt biological hormones that control sleep and awake condition. Disorientation of sleep and awake condition can cause serious health problems and that lead to death.

Last but not least, light pollution contributes to declining insects that birds eat. Over a seven-year period, the bird showed a real change in their reproduction when comparing behavior near streetlights with those without lights. The change was that, on average, females near lights laid their eggs 1.5 days earlier than those in the dark, this may lead to a mismatch between the timings of peak food demand from their baby chicks and the peak timing of food that is available.

ALTA Integra is a multi-discipline building physics engineer designers such as acoustics sound, lights, thermal, air quality, and etc. Research agreed that built environment is affecting sensor, emotion, behavior and biological of human and other living object. Our mission is to create a greener, healthier, beauty and comfort to live for.  

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