2026-04-06

Kill Count

Every night, millions of birds fly over your city. Not all of them make it.

Automated bird migration intelligence + building collision accountability — real-time radar migration tracking, per-city kill estimates, "Lights Out" compliance scorecards, species-at-risk alerts, and seasonal migration dispatches, all auto-generated from NEXRAD radar, BirdCast forecasts, eBird observations, and peer-reviewed collision mortality research.

Niche Explored

Bird migration intelligence + building collision tracking — the invisible genocide of 1+ billion birds/year in the US alone from window strikes, with real-time radar migration data now available but not being translated into consumer-friendly, action-oriented content.

Existing Competition

BirdCast (birdcast.org) — Cornell Lab’s migration forecast tool. Excellent science, but raw maps/data only. No narrative content, no collision accountability, no building scorecards. Academic tone. Not monetized.
Audubon Lights Out (audubon.org) — Program pages listing participating cities, but no real-time tracking, no data journalism, no automated content.
NYC Bird Alliance (Project Safe Flight) — Collision monitoring in NYC only. Good data, very local scope, manual reports.
Bird Buddy Blog (mybirdbuddy.com) — Product-driven blog, migration maps as content marketing for their smart feeders. Consumer-friendly but shallow.
Trail Optics Blog — Similar product-marketing blog. Generic.
Birding University (Substack) — Tips/education newsletter. Not data-driven automated content.

KEY GAP: Nobody is doing automated data journalism that combines real-time radar migration data + collision science + city accountability into a compelling consumer-facing site. The data exists (BirdCast, eBird, NEXRAD, iNaturalist) but sits in silos. No one is telling the STORY every night.

Data Sources Found

BirdCast Live Migration Maps — birdcast.org — Real-time radar-derived bird migration intensity maps for US. Updated nightly during migration season (Mar 1–Jun 15, Aug 15–Nov 30). Map tiles + forecast data. Free.
BirdCast Forecast Maps — 3-day migration intensity forecasts, updated every 6 hours. Free.
eBird API — api.ebird.org — Free (API key required). Recent observations, notable sightings, hotspot data, species counts by region. 800+ million observations globally. REST API, JSON format. Rate limit: reasonable for daily batch.
NEXRAD Weather Radar (AWS) — registry.opendata.aws/noaa-nexrad — Complete archive on S3. Free. Can extract bird migration signatures from radar reflectivity data. This is what BirdCast uses under the hood.
iNaturalist API — inaturalist.org/api — Free. Bird observation data, photos (CC-licensed), species range maps. REST API, JSON.
eBird Status & Trends — Modeled species abundance, range, and habitat data. API access via ebirdst package.
Cornell Macaulay Library — Free CC-licensed bird photos and audio for species illustrations.
Globe at Night — Citizen science light pollution data (cross-reference with collision risk).
Project FeederWatch Bird-Glass Collision Study — Citizen science data on window strikes. New 2026 initiative from Cornell.
USGS Bird Banding Lab — Window collision reports for banded birds.
DarkSky International — Dark Sky Places data (overlay with migration corridors).

SEO Analysis

Keywords: “bird migration map” (high volume, moderate competition), “bird migration forecast” (growing fast in spring), “birds hitting windows” (informational, low competition), “lights out for birds” (emerging), “bird safe buildings” (low competition, legislative interest), “how many birds die from windows” (Q&A featured snippet opportunity)
“BirdCast” searches spike massively every March-April and September-October
Bird-related content sees strong seasonal SEO with very predictable peaks
Long-tail: “bird migration [city name] tonight” — thousands of city-specific queries with almost no dedicated content

Communities

r/birding — 623K members, highly engaged
r/birds — 119K members
r/ornithology — niche but passionate
r/whatsthisbird — identification community, cross-pollination potential
eBird community — millions of active observers
Audubon local chapters — thousands of groups nationwide
BirdTwitter / BirdSky — extremely active communities
Facebook birding groups — massive reach (largest have 500K+ members)
iNaturalist community — 2M+ users

Image/Graphic Feasibility

Migration maps — Can auto-generate from BirdCast data tiles + custom overlay graphics (cities, collision hotspots, flight paths). Excellent visual content.
Species cards — Auto-generate from eBird/iNaturalist data + CC-licensed photos from Macaulay Library
Collision infographics — Data visualization of kill counts by building, city, species. Very shareable.
“Lights Out Report Cards” — City scorecards with grades, before/after light data
Flight path animations — Could generate static “flight snapshot” images showing migration corridors
AI-generated hero images — Dramatic bird-in-flight + city skyline compositions

Monetization Angles

Birding optics affiliate — 16+ programs available (Swarovski, Celestron, Vortex, etc.). Commission rates 5-12%. Bird watchers spend BIG on optics ($200-$3,000+ per binocular).
Bird-safe window film/decals affiliate — Growing product category, direct relevance
Donations — Conservation-minded audience is highly donation-prone. Ko-fi, GitHub Sponsors, Buy Me a Coffee
Newsletter premium — Personalized migration alerts by location, species alerts
Astrotourism/birding travel affiliate — Trip recommendations to migration hotspots
Birdwatching equipment market — projected to grow significantly through 2032