LOS ANGELES — Researchers from UCLA and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles are asking for help from the public to study how wildfire smoke affects local birds.

The program is called Project Phoenix, a community science monitoring project to study the effects of smoke on birds in neighborhoods across California, Oregon and Washington. Volunteers who sign up are asked to observe birds for 10 minutes a week and log their findings in the Project Phoenix app.

As wildfires grow more frequent and stronger every year, ornithologists believe wildfire smoke could be changing bird behavior. According to a 2021 U.S. Geolocial Survey, at least four radio-collared Alaskan geese were pushed hundreds of miles out of their usual migration pattern due to wildfire smoke.

Allison Shultz, curator of birds at the Natural History Museum, said no one really yet knows how wildfires and smoke affect birds, but she explaineed how the data from Project Phoenix can help us help them. The key is consistent data.

“Let's say for two months, nothing happens. And so we have consistently what are the typical birds in your site,” Shultz said. “But then, let's say there is a major smoke event and then we can see what changes. While just one site might not seem like a lot of data, when we add this up amongst many community scientists, we start to be able to pick apart these broader trends and broader responses that we see birds have.”

Project Phoenix researchers say there is no need of any prior knowledge of birds to join the program, but their website has resources to help you get started.