Danger of lights at night

[Pajarita]

I think that this is hugely important not only because it reinforces my eternal mantra of a strict solar schedule but also because I've read so many times about owners that leave a light on for their birds at night so they 'won't be scared'. Now, don't misunderstand me, I realize that they do it thinking they are doing the bird a kindness but, in reality, they are not. Babies and very young children might benefit from this practice but not birds.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/55 ... ity-lights

[Fidget]

Interesting read, thanks for posting that!

And you're defintely not just going on for the sake of going on... A quick Google Scholar search for "physiological effects birds artificial lights" brings up numerous hits going back into the 70s even!

Article about that: Artificial Light at Night Advances Avian Reproductive Physiology
http://m.rspb.royalsocietypublishing.or ... 7.full.pdf
In the discussion, they even mention that extremely low levels of light at night have an effect on the bird.

It's not just birds, artificial lighting causes issues for a variety of insects as well! Disturbance of night time movement of the American Burying Beetle has been credited as one of the many possible reasons for the decline in the species. (It's an endangered beetle in the USA). Also effects fireflies. Also effects bats too.

Too much light pretty much isn't good for any animal.

[Wolf]

We have posted numerous links concerning the effect of light in general as well as on the effects of different wavelengths ( colors) of light on birds. Unfortunately it appears that many people are of the opinion that somehow their bird is different from all of the other birds and are therefore unaffected by the light. It is one of the most difficult things that I have found to educate people about.

[Pajarita]

Most people that have parrots as pets work full time so I think it's more a matter of the self convenience of denial than anything else.

[Wolf]

While I am certain that denial is at work here and plays a large part for some of the people, I am also aware that many of them don't have a clue about how much light actually affects their birds or even what type of light has what affect either. They have a large number of people saying that their birds only need to have this amount of darkness so they can sleep unless there is some other reason to provide hem with a light at night. They sometimes understand that the length of the days affects their breeding cycles, but have a problem when it comes to understanding that this effect is for the place that the bird lives in and not for where the originally came from.
And then they have just a very few of us telling them that the information that they have is ok but that there is a lot more to it than what they are usually being told.

[nerdybird]

What advice does anyone have for birds that act afraid when the lights go out? I've tried turning them out slowly, but my parrotlet still acts afraid...my apartment doesn't receive much light from outside, and when all the lights are out at night it is pitch black.

edit: right now I use a very low nightlight, which I muffle. This has seemed to help, and when I take it away she gets scared again.

[Wolf]

I don't know if you have tried this or not, but in the normal environment there are sounds that permeate the night and because these sounds mean that there are other animals out and about parrots stand guard over the flock at nigh and rotate throughout the night and talk to each other while they do this . With this in mind try turning off the light and when your bird starts sounding restless start talking to it calmly and see if this has a beneficial effect.

[nerdybird]

Hmm, I will try that. She also doesn't seem to like being covered with the towel...on rare occasions I will leave it off, and she seems more relaxed when she goes to sleep and when I turn the lights on in the morning.

[Wolf]

I live way out of town so it is dark enough that I don't cover my birds at night.

[Pajarita]

Is the cage up high? Does she have a perch high up in a corner of the cage for roosting? Does the cage have at least one blind side? Is she exposed to dusk from almost the beginning to the end without any artificial lights near by?