Looking for a way to help birds this summer? Consider volunteering with one of the several monitoring programs active in our area. Below are three opportunities within the BCN coalition to consider!
The BCN Breeding Bird Survey
This year, as we have for each of the last 26 years, BCN will field approximately 200 monitors to survey the breeding birds of the Chicago region’s natural areas, which comprise 10–11% of the total six-county area. Monitors follow a prescribed protocol to count all the birds they see and hear within their assigned points during at least two June visits, then enter their data into the BCN Project on eBird. BCN data is important to land managers as they manage habitat restoration programs and to researchers studying birds.
Over those 20-plus years, the annual BCN Survey shows population abundance changes for the more than 100 species of birds that breed in our region. Our last analysis, “Breeding Bird Trends in the Chicago Region 1999-2020,” showed that our region’s birds were doing better than birds in the rest of the state, and Chicagoland is a stronghold for breeding birds such as Henslow’s Sparrow. To learn more, visit: https://www.bcnbirds.org/trends/.
BCN monitors are already prepping for this year’s June kickoff. If you’d like to join us for the 2026 season, recruitment for new monitors begins in late summer/early fall. For more information, visit: https://www.bcnbirds.org/monitoring/.
Chicago Nighthawk Project
The Chicago Ornithological Society (COS), a BCN coalition member, sponsors the Chicago Nighthawk Project, a volunteer monitoring program designed to track, study, and conserve the Common Nighthawk. Nighthawks are one of the fastest declining species in North America, but little is known about what they need to survive and thrive, especially in an urban environment.
Volunteers commit to monitoring four points after sunset on three separate nights in June. Nighthawks are most easily observed on summer evenings as they hawk insects in their aerodynamic flights. No prior experience or knowledge is required to participate. COS is actively recruiting volunteers now for the 2025 season. To learn more, visit: https://www.chicagobirder.org/chicago-nighthawk-project.
Even if you are not a monitor, if you observe Common Nighthawks this summer, report your sightings to eBIrd and help build the repository of knowledge on their locations and numbers.
The enigmatic Common Nighthawk is one of several Chicago-area volunteer monitoring opportunities. Photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren (Creative Commons).
Chimney Swift Monitoring
The Chimney Swift (often called the "flying cigar") with its long, sickle-shaped wings and fast wingbeats, is the only swift species in the eastern U.S. Kane County Audubon (KCA) manages a multifaceted Chimney Swift Monitoring Program to monitor swifts, a vulnerable species, given the decline in the number of tall/open chimneys and other natural roosting sites. Volunteers monitor fall roosting sites throughout Kane County, plus all nesting activity in four KCA Swift Towers and multiple other towers in Kane County, then record their findings in eBird.
For the last 10 years, KCA has sponsored popular annual fall Chimney Swift Sits to record swift migration activity and encouraged other locations to initiate similar counts!
KCA’s activities reach well beyond Kane County through its Facebook group, encouraging swift reporting, questions, and education from members in Illinois and other states. To volunteer or learn more about the KCA Chimney Swift Monitoring Program, email MySwiftHelp@gmail.com.
Black-crowned Night Heron Project
Black-crowned Night Herons were once a common resident of Illinois wetlands but are now a state-endangered species. The largest remaining night heron colony in Illinois is located at the Lincoln Park Zoo; however, their concentration at the zoo poses risks given limited expansion space and the potential impact of a disease outbreak or catastrophic weather event. In collaboration with Illinois Audubon Society, Chicago Black-crowned Night Heron Project, Chicago Park District, and BCN, researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Lincoln Park Zoo, and Illinois Department of Natural Resources have banded birds from the zoo colony to better understand their foraging and migration habits. They are also testing strategies for establishing new colonies in suitable habitats.
You can help by reporting any banded BCNH you see to https://arcg.is/0vKHPW0. If you are interested in volunteering to help re-find banded birds at known foraging grounds, please fill out this form to get involved with ongoing monitoring efforts: https://forms.gle/v7fDdcPjge33wnKx7.
Report signs of possible BCNH nesting/nest-building activity (other than at Lincoln Park Zoo) to Sarah Slayton at University of Illinois (email: slayton4@Illinois.edu) or Brad Semel at Illinois Department of Natural Resources (email: brad.semel@illinois.gov).
