Bird Safe Harrisburg
Collision Monitoring
There will be introductory meetings geared toward prospective volunteers and program expectations. The first is scheduled for Thursday, February 27th at 7 p.m. on Zoom. Please register here.
Over one billion birds are estimated to die in the United States each year from collisions with glass and reflective building surfaces. This is the leading human cause of bird declines behind habitat loss and outdoor domestic/feral cats. Prevention is attainable by ensuring that glass is bird-safe. These retrofits and best-practices are relatively easy for a homeowner to achieve, but solutions often become trickier for large commercial, institutional, and government buildings. Without community support, data, and ultimately, laws, bird collision prevention with these types of buildings and structures can be difficult to solve.
Bird Safe Harrisburg’s collision monitoring program serves two primary purposes: collect data and save birds - and YOU can help us in this effort.
Community Science
Data collection to observe when, where, and what species are being impacted by window strikes is extremely valuable. Appalachian Audubon’s Bird Safe Harrisburg uses iNaturalist to collect this data. Anyone in the greater Harrisburg area, from Carlisle to Hershey and from Elizabethville to Elizabethtown, can submit data to the community bird-strikes project on iNaturalist. Simply sign up for an iNaturalist account, download the app on your smartphone, and request to join the project.
Official collision monitoring program
The official project consists of a team of volunteers who monitor routes in Harrisburg during spring and fall migratory periods to help save injured window-strike victims and collect deceased birds. All impacted birds encountered during monitoring are recorded in the official iNaturalist project. Injured birds are transported to West Shore Wildlife Center for care and rehabilitation. Deceased birds are collected for research with ultimate storage at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and, for select species, at Pennsylvania Game Commission.
We are in need of volunteers. If you are interested in either transporting injured birds to rehab, or serving as a monitor, please email birdsafeharrisburg@appalachianaudubon.org with your availability and a completed volunteer agreement. Thanks in advance!