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Artificial light has essentially lengthened birds' day

Millions of audio recordings of hundreds of bird species have revealed that artificial light is making the birds wake up earlier and go to bed later.

And now a lot of birds around the globe are starting their days earlier than ever, because of unnaturally bright skies caused by light pollution. The audio was collected by thousands of devices installed in backyards and other locations, mostly by birdwatchers and other wildlife enthusiasts, as part of a program called BirdWeather. Jeff Buler, a wildlife ecologist with the University of Delaware who wasn't part of the research team, says this work is notable because it took advantage of both machine learning, which automatically identified the bird calls, as well as the participation of everyday people in science.

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