Saving a few euros on your electricity bill might do more than keep your bank balance in the black. Birdlife researchers from the Yelkouan Shearwater Project have discovered that it will also help protect this rare seabird that comes to Malta every year to breed.

So how can saving money also save a shearwater? It's all about light pollution. House lights, street lights, the 'globe lights' on promenades, restaurant and hotel lights all compete to throw huge amounts of wasted illumination up into the air.

There is nowhere in Malta that is free from light pollution. For a shearwater, light pollution is a terribly serious matter as it can make the difference between life and death.

The story of one particular shearwater explains the link. The bird arrived at the Birdlife Malta office in a bucket, brought in by a passer-by who had found it in the middle of Buġibba in a confused and hungry state.

Areas like Buġibba and Għadira are top spots for finding stranded shearwaters as both areas are very brightly lit, especially in early summer when tourism starts to hit its peak, and both are near the biggest shearwater colony of Rdum tal-Madonna at l-Aħrax tal-Mellieħa. Furthermore, June and July, the busiest months for tourists and bright lights, are also when the shearwaters are leaving the nest for the very first time.

Our bird-in-a-bucket was a typical example of how light pollution affects shearwaters - this was a young bird which had left the nest and flown out to sea only a few days earlier. Unfortunately, the shearwater's eyes are very sensitive to artificial illumination so the bright lights of Buġibba covered the horizon, blotted out the stars and drew our young bird inexorably towards the shore.

Confused by the light and noise, the shearwater collided with a building and hit the ground. If our bird had not been found, it would certainly have died. Since Malta has around 10 per cent of the world's population of shearwaters, we need to be particularly careful to protect them.

Protecting these birds means switching off lights when you don't need them. There is a link between highly lit areas and grounded seabirds: many other migratory species also collide with buildings over Malta, confused by the excessive light. If all of us in Malta put outside house lights on a motion sensor (or thought about whether we really need them at all), closed our curtains at night to keep the light in, turned off all lights we were not using, and persuaded our local hotels or restaurants to adopt eco-friendly lighting, there could be many less shearwaters hitting the ground every year. Not only that, but we would be saving huge amounts of energy and helping to reduce global warming with very minimal effort.

Not all birds are as lucky as this shearwater in the picture, so switch off and save a shearwater this year.

To find out more and read the full report on light pollution and shearwaters in Malta, visit www.lifeshear waterproject.org.mt. The report was also assisted by the Light Pollution Awareness Group (LPAG).

Ms Raine is EU LIFE Yelkouan Shearwater Project Manager