Evidence suggests that overall, bird populations have been steadily declining for the past half century, with nearly 1/3 of the total North American bird population being lost since the late 1960s. 

The causes of these billions of bird deaths and reproductive failures are mostly indirect, related to habitat loss and habitat change, but there are also direct causes of mortality that are close to home and solvable. Researchers agree that the two dominant causes of direct anthropogenic bird mortality are outdoor cats and window collisions. Both of these are issues on Penn State campus. 

Together with Krista Bailey, PSU's Sustainable Campus Strategist, and a past undergraduate student who is know a graduate student, Chyvonne Jessick, we started an OPP Living Labs project called PSU Bird Strikes to monitor bird window collisions on the University Park campus and advocate for bird safe glass on high priority buildings. 

Now, we seek students who are interested in joining this project, with students able to get involved through any of the following avenues they are interested in:

• helping monitor priority buildings for injured bird rescue and documentation of mortality
• helping with presentations to classes to raise student awareness, fundraising campaigns for bird safe retrofits, or related respecful activism
• working on a research article about bird window collisions

In the future there may be paid work study opportunities, but for now it's possible to offer independent study.