UIUC Bird Strike Survey

Interested in volunteering/getting involved?

We are currently looking for more people to help and get involved with our project!

Check out our New Volunteer and Current Season pages for more information.

Mission

Our goal is to document all bird collisions occurring on the University of Illinois campus to gain a better sense of how migrating birds are impacted by urban architecture. By collecting information during both fall and spring migrations, we are able to gain insight on how buildings impact different migratory species and their patterns. Through this effort, we are also able to push for more bird-friendly architecture, discuss the impact of urbanization on bird populations with campus and community members, enable students to experience the scientific method first-hand from data collection to analysis, and donate all birds to our university's ornithology collection where the birds can serve a greater purpose to be further studied and used by scientists in the future.

History

In 2019, graduate students Alec Luro, Kira Long, Rachel Skinner, and Sarai Stuart of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) launched this survey. The purpose of the survey was to investigate bird mortalities that were the result of window collisions. The survey was designed to focus on buildings with large glass façades, which pose issues for migrating birds and often result in bird strikes. To read more about why glass windows are dangerous for birds, check out this page.

Data collection

Deceased birds are collected twice a day, every day during fall and spring migration. Since 2019, we have collected more than 1,500 birds.

Student Engagement

Through the project, undergraduates have a chance to collect, analyze, and present data. Pictured are a group of undergraduates who presented at UofI's Undergraduate Research Symposium.

Community Outreach

Informing our community members about the science of window-strikes is valuable as it allows people to take actions, whether those actions are volunteering with us, encouraging more bird-friendly policies, or modifying their own homes or businesses to be more bird safe.

Questions?

Contact birdstrikes.uiuc@gmail.com to get more information on the project