BirdSafe Pittsburgh’s spring 2015 season has passed its one month mark! We began monitoring on April 1 and in the entire month of April, 10 volunteers put in roughly 92 hours walking routes throughout downtown. 26 birds were found in the month of April, of which 4 were found alive. Of these 4 live birds, volunteers were unable to capture 2 of them, and the other two were taken to the Animal Rescue League’s Wildlife Center in Verona, PA, where they were eventually released back into the wild.
The entire list for April is as follows:
American Robin – 3
Brown Creeper – 1
Brown Thrasher – 4 (one of which was alive and released!)
Cedar Waxwing – 1
Eastern Towhee – 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet – 1
Hairy Woodpecker – 1 (alive, escaped capture)
House Sparrow – 1
Northern Cardinal – 1
Northern Flicker – 2 (one alive, escaped capture)
Pine Warbler – 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet – 1
Song Sparrow – 1
White-breasted Nuthatch – 1
White-throated Sparrow – 1
Wood Thrush – 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – 4 (one of which was alive and released!)
Though it is disheartening to see these numbers and species, each of these birds has given us more information on the problem of window collisions in Pittsburgh. By collecting this data, we can get at where collisions are more likely to occur, and we can better focus our efforts to solve the problem.
As we move into the month of May, however, we are in need of more help! Just in the first 4 days we have already found 6 birds, including 3 Wood Thrush, 1 Ruby-throated Hummingbird, 1 White-throated Sparrow, and the male Yellow Warbler seen below. We will need people covering routes, creating new routes throughout the city, checking their houses, and driving birds to the Wildlife Center! To get involved, email birdsafepgh@gmail.com
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