The Newell’s shearwater numbered about 80,000 in the mid-1990s. Its population has plunged 75 percent in recent years as Kauai grew in size and added more lights that confused the birds.  The birds take their first flight a few months after hatching from ground nests in Kauai’s wet mountain forests. These fledglings, some still with down feathers, are prone to mistaking the bright lights at sports fields, hotels, parking lots and other places for the moon and stars, leading them to repeatedly fly around in circles.  They become exhausted and eventually drop to the ground, where they are often attacked by cats or hit by cars unless they are rescued by volunteers. The species is also threatened by pigs and goats that trample their nests.  “When they hit the ground, it’s usually very hard for them to take off,” said Scott Fretz, Hawaii’s wildlife program manager. “They need a breeze or they need a place to launch from. They’re just sitting ducks for the cats that are all over the place.”  The problem for football is that fledglings take off between Sept. 15 and Dec. 15 each year —in the middle of the season.  Most football games are now played on Saturday afternoons, the exception being the days that are closest to the full moon. Schools allow later games on those days because the birds are less likely to be confused by artificial lights.  The switch to Saturday games has upended a tradition on Kauai, an island once dominated by sugar-cane fields that is now known primarily for its relaxed tropical resorts. The small community of about 60,000 does not have concert halls, amusement parks or any college teams, making high school football the only show in town.  Football attendance has dropped, with some parents having to work during games or take other children to different sports activities. Some fans do not want to sit in the sun, and the players complain about the brutal daytime heat.  Kapaa High’s football coach, Kelii Morgado, has taken steps to prevent heatstroke during day games, including telling his players to drink a lot of water starting three days before. When players come off the field, they are sponged with ice water.  So far, the teams have avoided major medical problems because of the heat. Even so, Morgado said one of his players got so hot and lost so much fluid during a game that Morgado thought he showed concussion symptoms. The player recovered after trainers put ice water on his neck and had him drink water.  Travis Koga, Lori Koga’s son, said the fact that many high school players are on the field for both offense and defense makes the conditions that much harder.  “It’s hot, and you get all tired; you cannot focus,” Travis Koga said after Kauai High defeated Kapaa High, 14-13, last Saturday. “I think it’s best — Friday night lights. Not Saturday day football. It’s Friday night lights.”  The Kauai Interscholastic Federation changed the football schedule as Kauai County was facing possible federal prosecution for failing to protect seabirds.  The Justice Department said federal wildlife officials notified the county in 2005 that its lighting was hurting the birds, in violation of the Endangered Species Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The government said the county failed to install shielded lights that shined down on the field, not out, and were less harmful to the birds.  The county reached an agreement with prosecutors in which officials agreed to install shielded lights at Kauai’s three football fields by next season. Night games next year will have to be played under specially designed shielded lights, and the county must have an escrow account to cover fines for any birds that might fall during the games.  “This is a serious situation, and we are on a trajectory to extinction with this species if we don’t take real responsible action,” Fretz said.  Meanwhile, island residents like Rich Rapozo warned that some people were talking about refusing to rescue birds they saw on the ground in protest of the schedule switch.  “They chose the bird over our keiki,” he said after a Saturday game, using the Hawaiian word for children.  A version of this article appears in print on October 24, 2010, on Page SP10 of the New York edition with the headline: In Hawaii, Birds’ Friday Night Flights Turn Out the Lights on Prep Games. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
The death of Newell’s shearwaters due to the lights of night games has changed when most high school football games on the Hawaiian island of Kauai now are played.