Attack of the Flying Rats: The Pigeons are Coming

This poster was created by Hannah Czerwinski, Victoria Lisi, and Kyle Perlman. We conducted a study that examines how the human response to the COVID-19 Pandemic affected the pigeon population of New York City. Our group had an interest in urban ecology, specifically the interaction between humans and other species in cities, so the investigation of the pigeon, an icon of New York was a no-brainer. We used data from Cornell eBird, a database that collects information from birdwatchers and average people, and compares it against curated checklists, to complete our analysis. We determined that a decrease in human presence in the urban environment allowed the pigeon population to thrive.