BCC is a citizen science program, meaning the vast majority of the field work is done by trained volunteers. However, it is critical that you have a coordinator for the effort who has the time and skills to:

1. manage and communicate frequently with volunteers,

2. interface with building owners,

3. set up and manage the data collection system,

4. analyze or delegate the analysis of data, and

5. communicate results and next steps to volunteers, building owners, and the community.

This level of coordination takes approximately 25 hours per month in April, May, September, and October. Other months involve less of a time commitment.

These roles can be filled by one person or multiple. We also highly recommend forming a partnership with a local wildlife rehabilitator who can take any injured birds your volunteers find.

Considerations for identifying high-risk buildings:

• has a lot of glass on the exterior facade,

• has nice habitat nearby that would be reflected in the glass,

• contains a “pass-through” scenario where two panes of glass run parallel and creates the illusion of clear space to fly through,

• uses a lot of exterior lights at night.

One of the biggest frustrations volunteers have in a citizen science program is when they don’t hear from or hear back from their coordinators. You can prevent this by setting up a schedule for communications.

SoWBA has many email templates that we use, ranging from a confirmation email after the volunteer signs up to the weekly check in email. The suite of email templates is included HERE so you can use them as a starting point for your communications.

In general, your communications calendar should look something like:

• 2-3 months in advance of survey period: communicate with building owners to get them on board with participating

• 1-2 months in advance: begin marketing for new volunteers

• asap after volunteers sign up: send confirmation/welcome email

• 1 week in advance: send 1 week reminder

• 5-7 days in advance: send site team and tips email

• 1st day of survey period: send launch email

• weekly emails throughout survey period to whole group with updates and check-ins

• last day of survey period: send wrap up email with next steps

• within 1 month after finishing survey period: send thank you and results of data analysis to volunteers and site owners.

The BCC model emphasizes the importance of building a relationship and buy-in from the building owners. Building owners who are aware of and open to the project are more likely to do something if there is a problem window identified. We do not want to ask volunteer to monitor a building where the owner is adamantly against making change because it is a waste of the volunteer’s and your time! Get in touch with the building owner. You can use language provided here, if you wish:

Dear [NAME],

I hope this finds you well! I work/volunteer for [ORG], a local non-profit, and help run the Bird Collision Corps, a citizen science program powered by volunteers. This program started in 2018 in Madison (swibirds.org/bcc) and is now expanding to our community. 

The goal of the program is to study if and where birds are colliding with windows, and offer solutions if a problem area is found. Because [BUILDING NAME] has a lot of buildings with beautiful windows, I wondered if you might be interested in partnering with us this year to assess your building? We don't do any building-shaming, but always to work collaboratively and in partnership with the building owners and occupants and celebrate your community-mindedness. 

The process: we monitor during two times of the year, spring ([TIMEFRAME]) and fall ([TIMEFRAME]). Our trained volunteers walk the perimeter of the building in the early morning (before 9:30am) and document any evidence of bird-window collisions. We try to have a volunteer monitor every day of the week during those two time periods.

There is no cost to you, nor significant staff time required for you to participate. If you're on board, I would just stay in communication with you as our volunteers are lined up, and let you know how things are going throughout the survey period. At the end of each survey period, I'd send you results (results aren't shared publicly), and we can talk them through.

Please let me know if you'd like to talk more about this either on the phone or Zoom. Thank you for considering!

[YOUR NAME]

COLLISIONS DATA: You will need a way to collect data online so you can quickly get complete and legible information from your volunteers. We recommend the iNaturalist program (see “Nitty Gritty”, Data Collection section above).

EFFORT DATA: We ask volunteers to fill out a Google Form each week to share how much time they spent surveying that week so we can track effort data. This is optional but helpful. An example of the google form is here, and it spits responses into a google spreadsheet.

BIRD REPOSITORY: You will also need a location for volunteers to deposit and store frozen birds so you can verify species at the end of the survey period. The address of the selected office or home with freezer space, along with drop off information, should be provided to volunteers.

Ideally, you will have enough volunteers so each of the buildings in your BCC program have someone monitoring the building every single day of the week during the survey period. Volunteers can sign up for multiple days if you and they wish.

Local bird clubs, student groups, Wisconsin Master Naturalists, and community centers are great places to advertise this work.

We recommend taking registrations through a platform like SignUpGenius, which can be used for free (upgraded paid plans are also available).

Volunteers will need to know what to do, so you will need to provide them with a training session. This can be done in person or online. See recordings of previous training sessions hosted by Southern WI Bird Alliance HERE as an example.

Volunteers also need a kit with which they can collect birds, document observations, etc. Our list of survey kit materials is found HERE. You can have volunteers make their own kits or you can assemble and distribute kits for them.

Throughout the survey period, keep an eye on the data portal to ensure the entries include all of the required information and meet your expectations.

During the survey period, volunteers will collect dead birds, which you can gather up and identify at the end of the survey period. Identifying birds to species and making sure the species record in the database is important for ensuring accuracy of your study and analysis. You want to say with confidence that X number of Cedar Waxwings were documented, for example.

At the end of the survey period, we set a day, time and location for the bird identification activity and invite volunteers to come help. The BCC coordinator should download spreadsheets of the data in advance so they are open and ready when the bird sorting/ID begins. As birds are IDed, they can be confirmed or corrected in the database.

Any questions about the data should be cleared up with the volunteer as soon as possible. If the volunteers are logging multiple birds, waiting to correct errors may result in confusing experiences or making details harder to remember.

One of the most important gratifications for volunteers is seeing the results of their efforts. They want to see a report in a timely fashion!

Try to clean up, organize, and analyze the data and summarize the results of the survey period within 1 month after the survey period is completed so you can share it with the volunteers and site owners. If appropriate, you can share it with the community as well, as long as it doesn’t come across as building shaming. An example of an end-of-season report is available HERE.

You did it! You made it through a BCC survey period, connected with a variety of community members, collected important data, and closed the communication loop with your volunteers and site owners. Congratulations!

Now is a good time to plan an end of the season celebration (bird walk, pot luck, happy hour, etc.) and say thank you to your volunteers and partners. You can also give them a heads up about the next survey period’s approximate dates.