Charismatic Data and Material Traces: Monitoring Bird-Building Collisions through Citizen Science

Bird collisions with man-made structures pose a significant threat to bird populations. In the U.S. South, a small group of dedicated volunteers track these deaths with hopes of advocating for local policy requiring the use of bird-safe building materials. In addition to recording observations in a mobile application, volunteers log their efforts and collect the bodies of birds they find to add to university specimen collections. We offer a detailed empirical account of the work done by volunteers to produce (1) a digital record of local bird strikes (2) a log of volunteer monitoring efforts and (3) a collection of bird specimens. Unpacking the multiple forms of data produced by volunteer efforts, we examine how Safe Flight produced data oriented towards advocacy work. We end by discussing implications for data activism, highlighting the link between materiality and charismatic data, and proposing next steps for action citizen science.