Inspiration and Activation

Tina Phillips got her start at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology 26 years ago. As the leader of NestWatch, she saw how the simple act of putting up a nest box—multiplied by thousands of people—could help boost bird populations. But the real surprise was what she saw happening with the participants themselves. 

“What they were doing went above and beyond the NestWatch protocol,” Tina said. “They were creating community trails, nest boxes in neighborhood parks, getting youth involved.” That phenomenon led Tina, a biologist, to pivot her career to social science to understand what motivates people.

Today, Tina is assistant director of the Lab’s Center for Engagement in Science and Nature, spearheading a new bird-friendly initiative. Informed by social science research, the initiative aims to help multiply the number of people taking action to stem the three biggest human causes of bird mortality: habitat loss, outdoor cats, and window strikes. 

In this first season, 6,200 participants have joined an eight-month Garden for Birds pilot program. Hundreds of FeederWatchers are documenting bird mortality around their yards, and more than 8,000 people viewed a webinar on bird-friendly window treatments. Collaborations are underway with veterinarians to develop united messaging about how indoor cats benefit birds and cats alike. All co-developed with national partner organizations, these projects are poised to scale rapidly. 

“It gives me hope to see participants excited about the increased bird diversity that they’re witnessing in their yards, or how the steps they took led to a radical decrease in birds being killed by windows,” Tina says. “People are seeing themselves as part of the solution: individuals taking action, compounded across a landscape, adding up to real-world impact.”

K-12 Education

4,500+

educators trained

116

trainings offered

The State of the Birds report and K-12 program inspired English teacher Jeff Train of Hoboken, New Jersey to think like a scientist and to launch a community project called “Our Tern.” He’s working to help create a floating island for Common Terns, like the one pictured, to resolve a conflict with terns on a private pier and provide a safe haven for nesting.

NestWatch

4,000+

participants

139.4K

nests in 2024

In Pauma Valley, California, a problem-solving mission to stop Pygmy Nuthatches from drilling holes into houses led to Gina Gerken’s successful solution for her neighborhood and a nest box trail that fledged 3,000 young including bluebirds, swallows, and more.

Garden for Birds

6,200

participants registered

650

Bird Spot signs added

Anna-Marie Settine joined Garden for Birds, a Lab pilot project to encourage bird-friendly landscapes. In her yard in Nashville, she added native plants such as bee balm and coneflower to supplement birds around her feeder. Since then, she’s seen more young birds than ever before, plus several species of swallowtail butterflies.  

Bird-Friendly Windows

3.5M

reached via social media

8,000

webinar views

Each week, John Vickers could expect to hear at least one bird colliding with windows at his home in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Songbirds, doves, a Cooper’s Hawk. He joined the Lab’s webinar about making windows safer, then installed Feather Friendly film and DIY Acopian BirdSavers. Now, he says, the collisions have stopped.