Project Safe Flight Online Information Sessions Spring 2025
Help NYC Bird Alliance (formerly NYC Audubon) study the causes of bird collisions and ways to prevent them by becoming a Project Safe Flight (PSF) volunteer this spring. Through our research, we estimate up to a quarter million birds perish due to collisions with buildings in NYC each year. PSF was started by a few dedicated volunteers in 1997 to protect these migrating birds, many of which are rare or endangered. Continuing every year since then, PSF enlists dozens of volunteers to patrol the streets of New York City in the early morning during spring and autumn migration periods in search of dead and injured birds that have collided with buildings. Learn more about PSF here.
About the Volunteer Project
Volunteers walk the streets of NYC to monitor select buildings for collision victims, dedicating up to one hour of their time early in the morning once a week during the migration seasons. Stunned and injured birds are brought to a wildife rehabilitation center for expert care and treatment. Dead birds are collected and transferred to various natural history museums and research institutions. All the birds found (dead or injured) are entered into our database, providing a powerful tool for understanding the geography and dynamics of urban bird collisions. PSF data was instrumental in convincing the New York City Council to unanimously pass Lights Out NYC legislation Int. 271 & 274 in December of 2021.
Note on Accessibility
Participation in collision monitoring requires walking several blocks, mostly on concrete sidewalks but occasionally on grass, on an assigned route. Volunteers survey their routes early in the morning, sometime between 6-8am. A survey may take anywhere from 10 minutes up to 1 hour to complete depending on the volunteer's monitoring speed, the route, and the number of birds found on a given day.
Collisions monitors must be at least 16 years old to participate without parental supervision.
Get Involved
This spring, we will have at least one monitoring route in each of the five boroughs. Learn more about our program, how you can protect and conserve birds in urban spaces, and how to get involved as a volunteer by signing up for one of our online information sessions:
Attendance at an Information Session is required for new volunteers to be scheduled for monitoring in spring 2025. For any questions, contact us at communityscience@nycbirdalliance.org.
Photo: A Project Safe Flight volunteer documents a Yellow-rumped Warbler killed from colliding with glass. Credit: Winston Qin
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