It's going to be a long, dark night on Sept. 30, but not because of any celestial event or power outage.

Sept. 30 is the kickoff of an ambitious campaign by the Audubon Society of Portland to cut down on light pollution in an effort to save energy and the lives of migrating birds.

Organizers of the "Lights Outs Portland" campaign are encouraging residents to douse their non-essential exterior lights from dusk until dawn and get out to see the stars.

"We have a love affair with city lights, but we are beginning to understand that excessive nighttime lighting has serious unintended consequences," Mary Coolidge, of Portland Audubon, said in a statement.

Joining the effort are some big names and even bigger buildings, including the Fox Tower, the Wells Fargo Tower, Bonneville Power Administration, Lloyd Tower, Metro Regional Center, the 911 Federal Building and the Oregon Convention Center.

Aside from those soon-to-be darkened buildings, more than 700 residents have pledged to do their part in keeping the skies dim by extinguishing outside lighting around their homes.

"Lights Out programs already exist in 25 cities across the U.S., with a great triple bottom line! Participants save energy, see stars, and save lives!" Coolidge said.

The lives saved will be those of birds, organizers said. Streetlights, billboards and sports field lighting, to name a few, can lure migrating birds into cities where they run the risk of colliding with windows. Nationwide, an estimated 1 billion birds meet their fate this way every year.

Light pollution can pose risks to humans, too. Besides making it difficult to take in the splendor of viewing the Milky Way, blue-rich white light, often emitted by LED street lights, can cause sleep interruption, eye damage and an increased risk for a host of troublesome diseases.

Organizers will be hosting an event at Sunnyside Elementary School where students will put on a parade of nocturnal species and the folks from Rose City Astronomers will be on hand with telescopes to take in all the natural darkness of the night sky has to offer.

Hopefully, organizers said, Sept. 30 will just be a jumping off point for a larger campaign of darkness. The Audubon Society of Portland is asking residents to make a special effort to keep lights off during bird migration season every year, which generally runs Aug. 25 to Nov. 15 in the fall and March 15 to June 7 in the spring.

On a year-round basis, however, organizers recommended doing an audit of homes and businesses for unnecessary lights, making sure all lights are pointed down and using motion sensors where possible.

-- Kale Williams

kwilliams@oregonian.com

503-294-4048