Last summer, Carrie Brown-Kornarens spent 10 minutes every week observing birds in her Los Angeles backyard and at nearby Griffith Park. Brown-Kornarens, a ceramicist with a background in graphic design and animation, looked and listened closely for birds amid the coastal sagebrush, scrub, oak and walnut trees. She was already collecting data for a local raptor study, and she liked the idea of learning even more about birds and their behavior.
Just 10 minutes a week: That’s all it takes for volunteers to help scientists like Olivia Sanderfoot, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles, understand how birds respond to wildfire smoke. Brown-Kornarens is one of over 300 volunteers who participated in Project Phoenix, a joint initiative of UCLA and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, led by Sanderfoot. Following a successful pilot season in California last year, the effort is expanding into Oregon and Washington this summer, with data collection to run from July 1 to Nov. 30.
Birds’ lungs are more sensitive to toxic gases and particle pollution than humans’ are. They’re sometimes enlisted as early indicators of poor air quality — that’s where the expression “a canary in a coal mine” comes from. But little is known about the specific effects of wildfire smoke and its fine particulates on bird health and behavior. In 2021, a U.S. Geological Survey study of radio-collared tule greater white-fronted geese suggested that smoke pushed at least four birds hundreds of miles out of their way: On average, the quartet’s members flew an additional 470 miles to go around the smoke, doubling their migration time. Lead author Cory Overton said that a handful of waterfowl also detoured around the smoke plumes from Canada’s wildfires in 2023. Longer migrations require more energy and more recovery time, which could hinder reproduction or even lead to death.
As wildfires grow in frequency and severity due to climate change and forest mismanagement, birds and other species are being forced to adapt. “Smoke impacts millions of animals, and yet we know so little about what their natural defenses are against that,” said Jamie Cornelius, a biologist at Oregon State University who has collaborated with the Project Phoenix team. Air pollution from wildfires is eroding the improvements in air quality seen since the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970. While summer smoke doesn’t typically coincide with breeding seasons or spring migrations, that could change as fire seasons lengthen. “There’s an urgency here to figure out more about what’s going on and how we can help birds in this tumultuous time,” Sanderfoot said.
Sanderfoot is studying behavioral changes in 20 species of backyard birds, including crows, song sparrows and two common hummingbirds. No one really knows what to expect: Birds might hunker down, limiting their activity to minimize smoke exposure, or they might become more active, increasing their preening and feeding. They may show signs of stress, such as loss of appetite, or changes in vocalization, as in singing more or less — perhaps even aggressive behavior. Or they might leave the area entirely in search of cleaner air. Smoke might also attract other species like the black-backed woodpecker, which feeds on the insects that are drawn to smoke.
Project Phoenix volunteers are asked to record all the birds they see during a 10-minute survey each week at the same location. Knowing which birds are around when, and in what numbers, will indicate where they are and aren’t when it’s smoky. As the project progresses, researchers will use that basic information to learn more about different species’ behavioral responses. Last year, Project Phoenix volunteers captured 170 hours worth of data at over 320 different sites throughout California.
“There’s an urgency here to figure out more about what’s going on and how we can help birds in this tumultuous time.”
Volunteers — including Westerners living outside the three primary states of California, Washington and Oregon — can sign up at any point during the study window. The project also provides resources to help novices identify birds; no previous bird-watching experience is required. “It was kind of too easy,” Brown-Kornarens said. “I thought, am I missing something?”
Recruiting volunteers is about more than just collecting data, said Caitlin O’Neil, communications lead for the project and an undergraduate student at UCLA. “We also wanted to introduce birding and the benefits of it to people who maybe had never heard of it or never really thought about getting involved with it before,” she said. Sanderfoot hopes to inspire a birder or two along the way. Bird-watching, she said, “has changed my life in a very powerful, positive way,” becoming a meditative practice that has improved her mental health. “I just want to share that with other people.”
In Oregon, Cornelius is trying a different approach to learn more about what birds do when it’s smoky outside. Each summer, she travels to the region’s smokiest areas to catch, tag and monitor common forest songbirds. Her team assesses the birds’ fat and muscle tone and takes blood samples in order to measure stress hormones and immune responses. She also attaches small radio transmitters to finches to track the birds and document their heart rate, likely a good indicator for activity levels. As these data accumulate, her lab will use it to understand what’s going on in the bodies and brains of birds in acrid air.
The summer of 2023 wasn’t particularly smoky in California, so last year’s data will serve as a baseline for smokier summers. Even so, Brown-Kornarens left her survey sites with a deeper understanding of the world around her. She learned the favorite cache spots of acorn woodpeckers and even found a great horned owl’s nest. “It’s learning more intimate things you wouldn’t normally pay attention to,” Brown-Kornarens said. She plans to volunteer with Project Phoenix again this summer, adding more observations to a growing dataset.
This story is part of High Country News’ Conservation Beyond Boundaries project, which is supported by the BAND Foundation.
