A childhood belief about birds

One night when I was really young we were driving home
from my grandmothers when I notices the blinking red lights
on the radio towers along the highway. Confused about how there
were so many red lights up there and there were no buildings my
mother *probably to shut me up* told me they were sleeping birds.
I then went through a number of years where I thought that birds
would glow red when they slept. I thought the blinking was rythmic
with their breathing.