NYC Bird Alliance’s conservation programs are led by a professional science staff today—but the organization was founded by passionate birders and volunteer conservationists. Many in our community today are highly skilled birders with knowledge gained over years of careful observation in the field. Those skills are needed! Today it is as critical as it ever has been that we document changes in bird populations, as they face increasing pressures from threats such as habitat loss, environmental contamination, and global climate change. 

 

While lettered ornithologists have certainly contributed much to our modern understanding of bird biology and behavior, much of the knowledge that today’s birders and bird conservationists have right at their fingertips has in fact been provided by “amateur” birders. The term deserves more respect than it often gets. Nonprofessional bird-lovers and naturalists, people who watch and study birds, have created much of the reference material that we now take for granted: field guides and smartphone apps by Sibley, Stokes, or Peterson…over 120 years of Audubon Christmas Bird Count Records…and the vast and growing online databanks of eBird. 

 

Today, eBird has converted tens of thousands of birders across the globe into constantly working community scientists, gathering data on bird populations with every submitted checklist. On May 9. 2020, 50,000 birders contributed to a record “Global Big Day” organized by eBird. 

 

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Several recent studies have drawn upon long-term community science data sets, including the Audubon Christmas Bird Count and Breeding Bird Atlases—and raised a call to action to protect North American Birds: National Audubon’s “Survival by Degrees: 389 Bird Species on the Brink” warns that two-thirds of North American bird species are at increasing risk of extinction from global temperature rise. “Decline of the North American Avifauna,” from Cornell University and American Bird Conservancy and published in the journal Science, states that North American bird populations have declined 29 percent since 1970.
 
While such research results are sobering, they provide a firm scientific footing for conservation-minded Americans to demand widescale action and change to protect our birds. And everyone can contribute to needed scientific knowledge by volunteering as a community scientist. NYC Bird Alliance looks to engage community members from across New York City’s five boroughs in our work.