BirdSafe Pittsburgh’s fall 2015 monitoring season begins Tuesday, September 1. To see how to get involved in what we do, visit our volunteer page. The fall migration is much busier than the spring because of the sheer number of birds moving through. All of the birds that were born this summer are starting out on their first migration, and it is during this time that they are especially susceptible to all of the different threats they face, windows included. These juvenile birds add to the breeding migratory birds, dramatically increasing the number of individuals moving south for the winter. To get a sense of the difference in magnitude between the two migratory seasons, let’s take a look at our numbers from the past three seasons.
During the last three seasons of BirdSafe Pittsburgh volunteer monitoring, we found 322 individual birds which suffered from building window collisions. So far we identified 67 different bird species (and one mammal species) collected as either dead or injured with 26 individuals collected by volunteers and as yet unidentified to species by BirdSafe partners.
| Bird Condition | Fall 2014 | Spring 2014 | Spring 2015 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dead | 115 | 52 | 69 | 236 |
| Stunned | 50 | 17 | 19 | 86 |
| Grand Total | 165 | 69 | 88 | 322 |
Table 1 shows that during the fall of 2014, volunteers found more birds than both of our two spring seasons put together! Our volunteer efforts have also increased over the last three seasons, and that likely accounts for the increase in number of individuals found between the two spring seasons. If we are able to recruit more volunteers this fall, we may find and save more birds than we did last fall! (Again, visit our volunteer page to get involved! Send all of your friends to the volunteer page too! We need more volunteers!)
Have you ever wondered what our volunteers find? Breaking down the last 3 seasons data shows that more Ovenbirds, a ground-nesting forest interior bird, have been found than any other species. Relatively high numbers have been found for both White-throated Sparrow, an uncommon breeding bird in PA, and Wood Thrush, another forest interior bird and Neotropical migrant. We found single individuals for 35 species. Some of these included Eastern Whip-poor-will, Canada Warbler and Veery – again all forest interior birds which breed in Pennsylvania. Also of note were 2 Mourning Warblers, 3 Connecticut Warblers, and 3 Gray-cheeked Thrushes, 4 Blackpoll Warblers, and 7 Brown Creepers.
Table 2.) BirdSafe Pittsburgh bird collisions by species (2014-2015), showing species with > 10 collected.
| Species | Total (3 Seasons) |
|---|---|
| Ovenbird | 38 |
| White-throated Sparrow | 23 |
| Wood Thrush | 23 |
| Gray Catbird | 17 |
| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | 16 |
| House Sparrow | 15 |
| Common Yellowthroat | 14 |
| American Robin | 12 |
| Unknown Warbler Species | 11 |
Please consider taking part in the fall monitoring, and please let everyone you know about what we are doing to make Pittsburgh a more bird-friendly and ultimately more livable city for our feathered friends!
Here is a full list of all birds found by volunteers during the last three monitoring season:
| Table 3. BirdSafe Pittsburgh window collisions by species and season, 2014-2015. (order follows AOU) | ||||
| Species | Fall 2014 | Spring 2014 | Spring 2015 | Total |
| American Woodcock | 1 | 1 | ||
| Gull Sp | 1 | 1 | ||
| Rock Pigeon | 4 | 4 | ||
| Mourning Dove | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Black-billed Cuckoo | 1 | 1 | ||
| Yellow-billed Cuckoo | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Eastern Whip-poor-will | 1 | 1 | ||
| Ruby-throated hummingbird | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| Hairy Woodpecker | 1 | 1 | ||
| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | 10 | 6 | 16 | |
| Northern Flicker | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Eastern Wood Pewee | 1 | 1 | ||
| Empidonax Sp | 1 | 1 | ||
| White-eyed Vireo | 1 | 1 | ||
| Red-eyed Vireo | 1 | 1 | ||
| Blue Jay | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Northern Rough-winged Swallow | 1 | 1 | ||
| Carolina Chickadee | 2 | 2 | ||
| Brown Creeper | 6 | 1 | 7 | |
| Tufted Titmouse | 1 | 1 | ||
| White-breasted Nuthatch | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| House Wren | 1 | 1 | ||
| Winter Wren | 1 | 1 | ||
| Golden-crowned Kinglet | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Wood Thrush | 2 | 9 | 12 | 23 |
| Swainson’s Thrush | 3 | 3 | ||
| Veery | 1 | 1 | ||
| Gray-cheeked Thrush | 3 | 3 | ||
| American Robin | 2 | 2 | 8 | 12 |
| Gray Catbird | 6 | 2 | 9 | 17 |
| Brown Thrasher | 4 | 4 | ||
| Cedar Waxwing | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| European Starling | 2 | 2 | ||
| Yellow Warbler | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Chestnut-sided Warbler | 1 | 1 | ||
| Magnolia Warbler | 3 | 2 | 5 | |
| Black-throated Green Warbler | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
| Pine Warbler | 1 | 1 | ||
| Blackpoll Warbler | 4 | 4 | ||
| Bay-breasted Warbler | 1 | 1 | ||
| Yellow-throated Warbler | 1 | 1 | ||
| Tennessee Warbler | 8 | 8 | ||
| Nashville Warbler | 2 | 2 | ||
| Black and White Warbler | 1 | 1 | ||
| American Redstart | 1 | 1 | ||
| Common Yellowthroat | 9 | 2 | 3 | 14 |
| Mourning Warbler | 2 | 2 | ||
| Connecticut Warbler | 3 | 3 | ||
| Kentucky Warbler | 1 | 1 | ||
| Ovenbird | 23 | 7 | 8 | 38 |
| Canada Warbler | 1 | 1 | ||
| Unknown Warbler spp | 11 | 11 | ||
| Scarlet Tanager | 1 | 1 | ||
| Northern Cardinal | 1 | 1 | ||
| Rose-breasted Grosbeak | 1 | 1 | ||
| Indigo Bunting | 1 | 1 | ||
| Eastern Towhee | 1 | 1 | ||
| Field Sparrow | 1 | 1 | ||
| Song Sparrow | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| Swamp Sparrow | 1 | 1 | ||
| Savannah Sparrow | 1 | 1 | ||
| White-throated Sparrow | 16 | 4 | 3 | 23 |
| Unknown Sparrow spp | 1 | 1 | ||
| Red-winged blackbird | 1 | 1 | ||
| Common Grackle | 1 | 5 | 1 | 7 |
| House Finch | 1 | 1 | ||
| House Sparrow | 4 | 7 | 4 | 15 |
| Unknown | 5 | 7 | 2 | 14 |
| Little Brown Bat (mammal) | 1 | 1 | ||
| Total (67 spp) | 165 | 69 | 88 | 322 |
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