Inaugural Breeding Bird Blitz for Conservation

Hawk Mountain is ready for takeoff:
Breeding Bird Blitz begins soon

Watch Hawk Mountain's video and learn more about Rosalie's Raptors

Donate now to the Breeding Bird Blitz

The first-ever Breeding Bird Blitz for Conservation, hosted by the Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology, is a conservation collaboration featuring at least 18 teams searching for birds and raising funds for conservation. Between June 18 and 21, the teams will engage in friendly competition to observe the most species in a county or region while raising funds for three critical bird conservation projects focusing on protection of Wood Thrush and Northern Harrier habitat. 

All donations from this year’s event will be evenly split to support Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, Manada Conservancy, and Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. Hawk Mountain, as a recipient of funds raised, will participate in the Blitz. Led by MT Grob and joined by Laurie Goodrich, David Barber, and Bracken Brown, team Rosalie's Raptors honors Sanctuary founder Rosalie Edge and its raptor conservation mission.

Teams members are still enlisting friends and families to donate, with some offering  to donate a set amount per species observed and others making a flat donation. New teams may still register until Sunday, June 13 at www.breedingbirdblitz.org, where you may also donate in support of one of the teams. Every penny donated will go to the conservation projects. 

The Breeding Bird Blitz for Conservation was created to meet two goals: (1) enhance the monitoring of birds during the nesting season, and (2) increase the protection or restoration of habitats for birds listed as Species of Greatest Conservation Need in Pennsylvania.  

As always, birds in Pennsylvania and across the nation urgently need help. A well-publicized study in 2019 estimated 25% of bird species have disappeared from the North America since 1970, a loss of nearly three billion birds.*

So how does the Breeding Bird Blitz for Conservation work?
Teams of two or more birders register through the website and decide whether they will cover a single county or a region of the state. While drawing up the plans for their “Big Day,” the team members will reach out to friends to tell them what they are doing and ask for their support with a donation. All donations are made through breedingbirdblitz.org, where a donor can select a team to support. After the event, teams will submit their results, primarily through the eBird website. The teams that raise the most funds and document the most species will receive special recognition.