Colin Dobson and Emmarie Alexander are excited to continue the Bird Strike Survey into Spring of 2022! The main season will run from April 3rd to May 8th, with post-season check from May 9th to June 4th.
Please email Colin at cdobson2@illinois.edu and Emmarie at emmarie2@illinois.edu if you have any questions about the project.
Participating in the Bird Strike Survey? Please check these useful links.
- Route Signup
- Route and bird collection instructions
- Route maps and descriptions
- Post route data entry
- Collected bird picture album
GEEB is excited to announce that we will be continuing the Bird Strike Survey on campus this Spring 2022 as a part of our Service and Sustainability Initiative!
In 2019, GEEB launched the Bird Strike Survey, to assess which buildings on campus had the most window collisions by migrating birds in an effort to identify problem buildings, gather data for a grant proposal to the UIUC Student Sustainability Committee, and obtain funds to apply decals to dangerous windows on campus to prevent further avian collisions. The Fall 2019 survey went fantastic! The subsequent data was used in a grant proposal which was successfully selected for funding!
This year, we will be continuing to monitor high impact areas on campus while coordinating with buildings on campus to begin applying decals. However, long term data sets for comparison are crucial and monitoring migration again this year will be imparative for gaining more support for, not just applying decals to windows, but for hopefully pushing for designing more bird friendly architecture on campus from the get-go.
We once again need volunteers to help walk morning and evening routes on campus to monitor these bird strikes for vital data moving forward. No prior experience is necessary, anyone can walk a route!!
Due to COVID-19, we do ask that all volunteers either walk routes alone, or only with a buddy that is in their COVID bubble. We also ask that no volunteers unecessarily enter any buildings, stay socially distant from anyone they encounter on campus, and wear face masks at all times during the routes.
This year, we will only be walking 2 routes to lessen the volunteer load due to COVID concerns. You can choose either the North Quad Route (blue on below map) or the South Quad Route (green). We will need at least one person to walk the morning shift (7 – 9 AM) or evening shift (5 – 7 PM).
We will, once again, be holding a raffle! Every shift that you walk will count as one raffle ticket for a chance to get a fabulous prize!
We are also continuing to collect the unfortunate window casualties to hold a bird skin workshop, which has been postponed until after the COVID crisis; however, anyone who volunteered to walk a route will have first dibs for signing up for this workshop as soon as we can hold it.
If interested, sign up here. Please keep in mind the routes and shifts.
Also, here’s some more detailed information and instructions for the two different routes.
If you want to volunteer, but aren’t able to walk a route, please contact Colin at cdobson2@illinois.edu and Emmarie at emmarie2@illinois.edu for other opportunities.
We are exceptionally grateful for any help you can give and hope that you can all join us in our efforts to make the University of Illinois a bird-friendly campus!”
GEEB would like to thank our funding sources who support the Bird Strike Survey:
