BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Wildlife Federation is encouraging building owners, businesses and residents to turn off or dim non-essential lights during peak migration hours to help the millions of birds that have been passing over the state each night.

According to BirdCast, more than 42 million birds crossed Louisiana between 6:50 p.m. Wednesday and 7:00 a.m. Thursday. That is nearly 25 million more than the previous day's total of 18.4 million. Monday saw just 686,000, meaning an increase of more than 40 million. BirdCast estimates that as of Wednesday, 330 million birds have crossed through the area this migration season. LWF predicts 500 million will cross.

"We are actually on a migration path for the migratory species of birds going both north and south," Audubon State Historic Site Ranger Daniel Wilcox said.

However, many of those crossings end in trouble.

"When birds are flying through, they may mistake a window for the reflection of the sky, so you'll have a bird thinking that it's flying further through the sky and in fact it hits a window or the side of a building," LWF's Rebecca Triche said.

LSU estimates that over one billion birds collide with glass or buildings every year in North America. This is because many birds use natural cues, such as the light of the moon and stars, to fly through the night.

"They will actually circle around buildings, around lights to the point of getting exhausted and even colliding into glass and buildings," LSU Assistant Professor of Conservation Biology Erik Johnson said.

LWF is asking residents to participate in the "Lights Out Louisiana" initiative to participate in can help these birds navigate the Louisiana night sky safely. Peak migration is between Aug. 15 and Oct. 31, officials said.

These include shutting off unnecessary lights from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. during the migration period, which typically lasts into November. Lights that are considered essential can still be dimmed or aimed downward.

For buildings that are three stories or more, LWF asks that decorative lighting, atrium lights, vacant floor lighting and other lights that could interfere with the birds' navigation be shut off, or dimmed at the very least.

Additionally, people can close their blinds to reduce glare from the window. Making sure to turn off landscape lighting on trees or gardens where birds tend to rest also helps.

As for why there is a huge jump in the number of birds migrating, bird specialists, as well as our Storm Station meteorologists, agree it's due to the cold front.