ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2017
High-intensity urban light installation dramatically alters nocturnal bird migration.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 59 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
59 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Light pollution and its possible influence on the wild fauna in parks in Oslo, Norway.Photochemical & photobiological sciences : Official journal of the European Photochemistry Association and the European Society for Photobiology · 2026Pooled it
- A meta-analysis of biological impacts of artificial light at night.Nature ecology & evolution · 2021Pooled it
- Color change, background choice, and camouflage in a nocturnal treefrog: implications for circadian adaptation.Zoological research · 2026Article
- Structuring the skies: Diel dynamics of migratory animal movement in the lower atmosphere.Ecology · 2025Article
- Systematic Continental Scale Monitoring by Weather Surveillance Radar Shows Fewer Insects Above Warming Landscapes in the United States.Global change biology · 2025Article
- Spatio-Temporal Variation in Aerial Arthropod Abundance Revealed by Weather Radars.Global change biology · 2025Article
- Integrated of metabolome and transcriptome analysis reveals the effect of artificial light at night on Platanus orientalis L.BMC plant biology · 2025Article
- Bats flying through a Y-maze are visually attracted to wind turbine surfaces.Biology letters · 2025Article
- The Impact of Urbanization on Avian Communities During the Breeding Season in the Huanghuai Plain of China.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Human recreational activity does not influence open cup avian nest survival in urban green spaces.Urban ecosystems · 2025Article
- Widespread influence of artificial light at night on ecosystem metabolism.Nature climate change · 2025Article
- Partial night lighting may reduce the physiological impact of artificial light at night on captive zebra finches.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Article
- Investigating the interactive effects of habitat type and light intensity on rocky shores.Oecologia · 2024Article
- Brightness cues affect gap negotiation behaviours in zebra finches flying between perches.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Eco-metropolis: Re-interpreting ecological conservation in the context of innovative agglomeration.Environmental science and ecotechnology · 2024Article
- Endocrine-circadian interactions in birds: implications when nights are no longer dark.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- The effects of cities on quail (Coturnix coturnix) migration: a disturbing story of population connectivity, health, and ecography.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2024Article
- Olfaction in the Anthropocene: NOScience (New York, N.Y.) · 2024Article
- Article
- Light pollution in complex ecological systems.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Billions of nocturnally migrating birds move through increasingly photopolluted skies, relying on cues for navigation and orientation that artificial light at night (ALAN) can impair. However, no studies have quantified avian responses to powerful ground-based light sources in urban areas. We studied effects of ALAN on migrating birds by monitoring the beams of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum's "Tribute in Light" in New York, quantifying behavioral responses with radar and acoustic sensors and modeling disorientation and attraction with simulations. This single light source induced significant behavioral alterations in birds, even in good visibility conditions, in this heavily photopolluted environment, and to altitudes up to 4 km. We estimate that the installation influenced ≈1.1 million birds during our study period of 7 d over 7 y. When the installation was illuminated, birds aggregated in high densities, decreased flight speeds, followed circular flight paths, and vocalized frequently. Simulations revealed a high probability of disorientation and subsequent attraction for nearby birds, and bird densities near the installation exceeded magnitudes 20 times greater than surrounding baseline densities during each year's observations. However, behavioral disruptions disappeared when lights were extinguished, suggesting that selective removal of light during nights with substantial bird migration is a viable strategy for minimizing potentially fatal interactions among ALAN, structures, and birds. Our results also highlight the value of additional studies describing behavioral patterns of nocturnally migrating birds in powerful lights in urban areas as well as conservation implications for such lighting installations.
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