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. 

The "Lights Out Louisiana" initiative that the nonprofit is asking residents to participate in can help these birds navigate through the Louisiana night sky safely.

Peak migration is between Aug. 15 and Oct. 31, officials said. 

Over the past week, as fall enters full swing, an average of 6.3 million birds passed through the state each night, with 12.2 million birds migrating through the state on Saturday alone. 

"For context, only about 6,000 birds were detected the previous week, making this a dramatic increase," Louisiana Wildlife Federation officials said.

Some steps people can take to ensure these birds have safe migrations include turning off unnecessary lights from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. and avoiding landscape lighting on trees and gardens where birds rest.