The purple martins that turned the Texas A&M campus into a nightly spectacle in July have moved on. The migration they were staging for is just getting started.
Fall migration season in Texas opened Saturday, Aug. 15, and runs through Nov. 30, according to Audubon Texas. The peak window, when the largest numbers of birds pass overhead at night, falls between Sept. 5 and Oct. 29.
What the city is asking for
The request is simple and costs nothing: turn off non-essential outdoor lighting at night during migration. Artificial light draws migrating birds off course and toward buildings, and the Lights Out, Texas! campaign asks building owners, businesses and homeowners alike to darken what they can through the season.
That ask is the practical content of College Station's Bird City Texas designation, a certification run jointly by Audubon Texas and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Laurie Brown of the city has said College Station became the 12th Bird City in Texas on Jan. 9, 2025; the program now counts 16 Texas communities among more than 200 certified bird-friendly communities nationwide.
Certification is not a plaque for good intentions. Communities commit to measurable steps: restoring native habitat, cutting light pollution, planting native vegetation and running education programs for residents.
What that looked like in practice this summer
The clearest local example came in July, when an estimated 50,000 purple martins gathered in a pre-migration roost on the A&M campus. The city partnered with the university on a community watch party, with viewing from the top of a west-campus parking garage and at ground level near Reed Arena.
"It's absolutely spectacular," Dr. Mark McDermott told KBTX, describing birds arriving around 8 p.m. "By 8:15, thousands of them are swirling around the parking garage there on west campus, and then you see them just plummet down. They put their wings back and they come down real fast and then they land on the top of the trees."
Martins have moved through the Brazos Valley for thousands of years, long before the university existed. What the campus adds, McDermott said, is a set of attractions: even-topped live oak plantings, the warmth of concrete and a landmark visible from the air.
City staff also ran a more hands-on operation, using bird calls and illuminated trees to steer roughly 25,000 birds away from hazardous urban blocks and toward John Crompton Park.
