We wanted to learn which environments around Northeastern Illinois University birds prefer to be in. Specifically, we decided to investigate how noise level affected the amount of birds present in a certain area. We decided on this project because during the first few weeks of the program, we noticed a lot of variation in the productivity of birding sessions based on environmental factors and especially based on how frequented the area was by people; the results of this project could potentially offer up suggestions on how to make the area 

more bird-friendly. 

Our project was about birds and taking a closer look at their behavior/presence in relation to sound level. For this investigation, we went to different locations to observe the birds there while also keeping track of factors through a data sheet to determine why birds would prefer that area or not.

From our investigation we wanted to learn more about the relationship between birds and the sound level of their environments; we wanted to see how noise would impact the biodiversity and amount of birds in a certain location. We also wanted to learn about how the surrounding areas could become better for birds, which we thought could be answered using the results of this project. To do that we had observed their behavior in various locations with varying environmental factors.  

People can contribute to the project by recording observations of the number of birds that they see in the area over ten minutes. Merlin is a tool that we had used throughout our investigation and is easily accessible through the app store. Using this app on day to day walks or whenever outside is a great way to be able to contribute to birding data. They can also record additional data such as location, temperature, decibels (dB) etc. so that comparisons between environmental conditions and bird presence can be made.