The Spark Bird Project is an ongoing participatory community social science initiative designed to gather, share, and study the stories of people’s passion for birds while gaining scientific insights into a critical piece in the ecology of birds: birders themselves. The project leverages the tools of social science to study spark bird stories, with research findings going directly back to community partners to inform their efforts towards engaging people in birding. The knowledge
gained from The Spark Bird Project helps to craft inclusive experiences that can facilitate spark bird moments for the benefit of the birding community, the new birder, the economy, and – most importantly – the birds and our world. By understanding what hooks and sustains birders, The Spark Bird Project helps grow the constituency of individuals creatively working to conserve and protect our planet.

Jenn Lodi-Smith, Ph.D., the founder and director of The Spark Bird Project, is a Professor of Psychology at Canisius University and scholar-in-residence with the Roger Tory Peterson Institute. Jenn has been using mixed methods to longitudinally study identity development for over 20 years, most recently in the context of the transformative power of spark bird experiences. She serves as secretary/treasurer for the Association for Research in Personality, associate editor
of Journal of Personality, on the board of Birds on the Niagara, and mentors the WNY Young Birders Club.