{"id":51407,"date":"2026-03-13T15:25:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T20:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/?p=51407"},"modified":"2026-03-18T14:05:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T19:05:33","slug":"behind-the-binoculars-olivia-sanderfoot-birding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/behind-the-binoculars-olivia-sanderfoot-birding\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Binoculars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"gb-text drop-cap\">There\u2019s a photo that Olivia Sanderfoot \u201915, MS\u201917 loves. It\u2019s her and her son, then about nine months old, on a hike in Will Rogers State Historic Park in Los Angeles. A favorite birding spot of hers \u2014 and just a few miles from their apartment \u2014 Sanderfoot loved sharing the wild respite with her son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div>\n<div class=\"gb-element-92236083\">\n<figure>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"401\" height=\"551\" class=\"gb-media-68ebd40f\" alt=\"Olivia Sanderfoot\" src=\"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-content\/uploads\/Olivia-Sanderfoot_400x550-1.webp\" title=\"Olivia-Sanderfoot_400x550-1\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figcaption class=\"gb-text\">Sanderfoot and her son, Owen, hiking in Will Rogers State Historic Area before it burned in the 2025 Palisades Fire. Photo courtesy of Olivia Sanderfoot<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">Will Rogers Park burned to the ground in the Palisades Fire of January 2025, which scorched nearly 40 square miles of Los Angeles County and caused more than 100,000 residents to evacuate. Sanderfoot, her son, and her husband were among them. But holding the photo now is bittersweet. \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful photo,\u201d she says, \u201cbut it\u2019s hard to look at if you know that everything in that photo is ash.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">That was the closest Sanderfoot has been to a wildfire \u2014 physically, at least. She spent her master\u2019s coursework and postdoctoral studies investigating the impacts of wildfires, but not the effects most researchers focus on. Before Sanderfoot, shockingly little published research existed on how wildfire smoke \u2014 or air quality in general \u2014 affected birds. Nevertheless, she\u2019s starting to feel comfortable in the \u201cleading expert\u201d title she\u2019s often given barely 10 years after finishing her master\u2019s degree from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. And she should: last summer, she was hired by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology \u2014 the world\u2019s most prestigious avian research outfit \u2014 to lead its acclaimed citizen science program, Project FeederWatch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<aside class=\"gb-element-1ce0d30c commons-quote quote-left\" role=\"complementary\">\n<div class=\"gb-element-f58af3bb\">\n<span class=\"gb-shape gb-shape-3c4ead9a\" aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"img\"><svg data-name=\"Layer 2\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 96.58 80.22\"><path d=\"M2.2 74.25c14.47-8.81 26.43-21.08 26.43-35.24 0-4.4-1.57-8.18-5.35-9.75l-10.7 9.75C7.55 36.18 0 30.2 0 19.19 0 9.12 7.55 0 19.82 0 34.29 0 43.1 11.64 43.1 27.06c0 23.6-17.3 40.9-37.12 53.17l-3.77-5.98Zm53.49 0c14.47-8.81 26.43-21.08 26.43-35.24 0-4.4-1.57-8.18-5.35-9.75l-10.7 9.75c-5.03-2.83-12.58-8.81-12.58-19.82C53.49 9.12 61.04 0 73.31 0c14.47 0 23.28 11.64 23.28 27.06 0 23.6-17.3 40.9-37.12 53.17z\" fill=\"#86efef\" data-name=\"Layer 1\"><\/path><\/svg><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text gb-text-0b9181b1\">\u201cMy family was going through a lot \u2026 I tried meditation, I tried therapy, and those things did not really seem to ease that at all. But birding did.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text gb-text-c5486077\">\u2013 Olivia Sanderfoot &#8217;15, MS &#8217;17<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-text\"><strong>Birding 101<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">This would typically be the paragraph that starts with: \u201cGrowing up, Sanderfoot always had a love of birds.\u201d But she didn\u2019t. It\u2019s not that she actively <em>disliked <\/em>birds, she just wasn\u2019t born with binoculars around her neck. She found birds as an undergrad at the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison when she was looking for an easy A. Studying biology and Spanish with a certificate in environmental studies, she still had some requirements left to fill in her final spring semester. She could check a bunch of them off with Forest and Wildlife Ecology 521: Birds of Southern Wisconsin, taught by Nelson Institute affiliate Anna Pidgeon. \u201cIt\u2019s basically a class on birding and how to identify birds,\u201d she remembers, so she enrolled. And thank goodness she did, because when life took a turn, birding became her safest space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">\u201cMy family was going through a lot,\u201d she says, and the weight of trying to help and support a loved one whose mental health was struggling was heavy. \u201cI tried meditation, I tried therapy, and those things did not really seem to ease that at all,\u201d she reflects. \u201cBut birding did. I just remember going outside and feeling like I had this superpower that I didn&#8217;t have before.\u201d From there, birding became a hobby and a passion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">Sanderfoot continued her graduate studies at UW\u2013Madison, enrolling in the Nelson Institute\u2019s environment and resources master\u2019s program. With Tracey Holloway, professor of environmental studies, as her advisor, Sanderfoot had the opportunity to work with the <a href=\"https:\/\/haqast.org\/\">NASA Health and Air Quality Applied Science Team<\/a>, which is led by Holloway and based out of UW\u2013Madison. \u201cMy job was to communicate the work that atmospheric scientists were doing to advance public health. How do we use satellite data to learn more about air pollution to protect public health?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">As she was concurrently homing in her thesis, she began to think: what if we could communicate how air pollution is impacting birds? \u201cThat could be a good starting point for talking about actions that we could all take to lower our carbon footprint, to reduce air pollution,\u201d she thought. But there was one problem. \u201cWe actually didn&#8217;t know how air pollution impacted birds.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<aside class=\"gb-element-dd97372a commons-quote quote-left\" role=\"complementary\">\n<div class=\"gb-element-2979623f\">\n<span class=\"gb-shape gb-shape-08a4f953\" aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"img\"><svg data-name=\"Layer 2\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 96.58 80.22\"><path d=\"M2.2 74.25c14.47-8.81 26.43-21.08 26.43-35.24 0-4.4-1.57-8.18-5.35-9.75l-10.7 9.75C7.55 36.18 0 30.2 0 19.19 0 9.12 7.55 0 19.82 0 34.29 0 43.1 11.64 43.1 27.06c0 23.6-17.3 40.9-37.12 53.17l-3.77-5.98Zm53.49 0c14.47-8.81 26.43-21.08 26.43-35.24 0-4.4-1.57-8.18-5.35-9.75l-10.7 9.75c-5.03-2.83-12.58-8.81-12.58-19.82C53.49 9.12 61.04 0 73.31 0c14.47 0 23.28 11.64 23.28 27.06 0 23.6-17.3 40.9-37.12 53.17z\" fill=\"#86efef\" data-name=\"Layer 1\"><\/path><\/svg><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text gb-text-3f1a5369\">&nbsp;\u201cWe actually didn\u2019t know how air pollution impacted birds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text gb-text-f74bf45a\">\u2013 Olivia Sanderfoot &#8217;15, MS &#8217;17<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">You\u2019ve probably heard the phrase <em>canary in a coal mine<\/em> \u2014 \u201cthat was a real thing, that people actually did bring canaries down to moderate levels of noxious gases,\u201d Sanderfoot says. \u201cWe\u2019ve known for a really long time that birds are inherently more sensitive to air pollution than other types of animals \u2026 It\u2019s always surprised me that we just don\u2019t know that much about it.\u201d Her thesis became a literature review of all research done on the avian impacts of air pollution, which was published in <a href=\"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.1088\/1748-9326\/aa8051\"><em>Environmental Research Letters<\/em><\/a> in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-text\"><strong>Birders, Assemble<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">When Sanderfoot left Madison, she knew everything that everybody else knew about how air quality affected birds. Now she wanted to answer her own questions. \u201cI realized that in order to answer these questions, I really needed to get better at statistics. I needed to better understand how to analyze [and] interpret data,\u201d she says. She headed west to the <em>other <\/em>UW \u2014 the University of Washington \u2014 to pursue her PhD with quantitative ecologist Beth Gardner. There, she narrowed <em>air pollution <\/em>to <em>wildfire smoke<\/em>. \u201cIn a time of increasing fire on the landscape, we\u2019re seeing more wildfire smoke, and we\u2019re seeing wildfire smoke impact places where it really hasn\u2019t been historically,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019ve been just starting to think about what that means for people. If it means something for people, it probably means something for birds too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">Unlike humans, bird lungs are rigid. Instead of expanding and contracting with each breath, air is moved through a system of air sacs surrounding the lungs. Because of this, they extract twice as much oxygen as we do. \u201cThey&#8217;re basically constantly absorbing oxygen, which also means they&#8217;re getting a nasty dose of whatever else is in the air too,\u201d Sanderfoot explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">But when it comes to wildfire smoke, the effects go beyond health. \u201cSmoke also darkens the sky. It changes the smells. It is very much an all-sensory experience to be in a wildfire smoke event,\u201d she says. \u201cBirds are dynamic beings that use a lot of different cues in their environment that tell them when and how to engage in various behaviors,\u201d like hunting, foraging, calling, and even migrating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div>\n<div class=\"gb-element-dac13236\">\n<figure>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"864\" class=\"gb-media-16ad8d50\" alt=\"US map with pins dropped.\" src=\"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-content\/uploads\/Sanderfoot-Map.gif\" title=\"Sanderfoot-Map\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figcaption class=\"gb-text\">Sanderfoot\u2019s own migratory path has taken her to nearly all corners of the country.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">As she continued her research, she found that her pointed interest in wildfire smoke added a unique challenge. \u201cIt\u2019s almost impossible to design a classic traditional field study,\u201d she explains. Even with the best weather forecasting, the odds of perfectly planning a three-week trip to the exact right location to monitor how birds respond before, during, and after a smoke event are slim. So Sanderfoot got creative. She turned to another thing that birders know something about: community. \u201cI started thinking more about participatory science: public participation in research. I think that is one of the most powerful tools that an ecologist has in her toolkit,\u201d Sanderfoot says.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">While nearing the end of her PhD work in Seattle, COVID-19 shut down the world. Sanderfoot wondered how the change in human presence affected bird habits and movements. She led a project that engaged nearly 1,000 people in cities across the Pacific Northwest to watch birds out their windows for 10 minutes, once a week. The results were covered widely from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41598-022-16406-w\">scientific journals<\/a> to<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cascadepbs.org\/environment\/2021\/05\/how-birds-pacific-northwest-have-experienced-pandemic\/\"> mainstream news outlets<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">Sanderfoot had found her niche: a blend of the scientific method, community-sourced data, air quality science, and birding. \u201cI don\u2019t know that it would\u2019ve occurred to me that I could have this career and be at this intersection without the Nelson Institute,\u201d Sanderfoot reflects. \u201cThe education that I received was so unique in that regard. It was so broad, so interdisciplinary, and so focused on experiential learning and thinking outside the box that it allowed me to really create this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">Sanderfoot followed that current through her PhD defense to postdoctoral scholarships and fellowships at the University of California\u2013Los Angeles. There she created another participatory science project, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.project-phoenix-investigating-bird-responses-to-smoke.org\/\">Project Phoenix<\/a>, specifically focused on birds and wildfire smoke. Birders across California, Oregon, and Washington log birds in their neighborhood for 10 minutes per week, then Sanderfoot and her team build a dataset to analyze patterns and trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"gb-element-8630ea10 wide-1200\">\n<figure>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1201\" height=\"801\" class=\"gb-media-7a83c2ee\" alt=\"Olivia Sanderfoot\" src=\"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-content\/uploads\/Olivia-Sanderfoot_1200x800-1.webp\" title=\"Olivia-Sanderfoot_1200x800-1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-content\/uploads\/Olivia-Sanderfoot_1200x800-1.webp 1201w, https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-content\/uploads\/Olivia-Sanderfoot_1200x800-1-600x400.webp 600w, https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-content\/uploads\/Olivia-Sanderfoot_1200x800-1-768x512.webp 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1201px) 100vw, 1201px\" \/>\n\n\n\n<figcaption class=\"gb-text\">When Sanderfoot was photographed for a feature in&nbsp;<em>Audubon Magazine<\/em>, it was 2023 \u2014 the worst year in history for wildfire smoke in the U.S. She had also recently learned she was pregnant with her son, Owen. Photo by Alisha Jucevic<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-text\"><strong>Protect the Nest<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">Sanderfoot and Project Phoenix were featured in <em>Audubon Magazine <\/em>in 2023 \u2014 coincidentally a devastating and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.preventionweb.net\/news\/get-ready-smokier-air-record-2023-wildfire-smoke-marks-long-term-shift-north-american-air\">record-breaking year for wildfire smoke<\/a> in the United States. That <a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s42865-025-00093-2#:~:text=In%20the%20summer%20of%202023,wildfires%20that%20originated%20in%20Canada.\">summer was particularly brutal<\/a>, and it was the summer that Sanderfoot found out she was expecting her first child. She remembers the photoshoot she had for her <em>Audubon <\/em>feature. \u201cI think I\u2019m four or five months pregnant in those photos,\u201d Sanderfoot remembers. One photo shows her looking to the sky, one hand on her binoculars and one hand on her growing belly.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">As any mom can tell you, becoming a parent has changed the game. \u201cWhen I think about the birds that I love, I wonder if my son will get to have these same experiences observing them in the wild,\u201d she reflects. It can be especially hard, Sanderfoot says, when her work is steeped in existential questions of how and why our ecosystems are changing \u2014 and what that means for both birds and our experiences with the natural world. \u201cThere are lots and lots of people my age who feel hopeless and demoralized and overwhelmed, and those are valid emotions,\u201d she says. She felt that way, too, once, before she found solace in birds. But now she has a bigger reason. \u201cMy kid needs breakfast, and he needs to get to school, and he needs to have a good day because he deserves to have a good day because these problems are not problems he created.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">Although the science can feel scary \u2014 the science <em>is <\/em>scary \u2014 there are aspects of Sanderfoot\u2019s work that helps her stay positive. \u201cI tend to, on most days, feel more optimistic than pessimistic about the future, not because of the science, but because of the people,\u201d she says. \u201cBeing part of a participatory science program allows me to connect one-on-one with bird enthusiasts all over North America, all of whom care a great deal about this and are doing what they can to take bird-friendly action to avoid the catastrophes that I fear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-text\"><strong>Citizen Science, Scaled<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">Sanderfoot is now part of <em>the<\/em> largest bird-enthusiast participatory science program in the world, having joined the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.birds.cornell.edu\/home\/\">Cornell Lab of Ornithology<\/a> in August 2025. Based in Ithaca, New York, the Cornell Lab manages eBird, an online repository for tracking and data visualization with more than 1.2 million users; Merlin Bird ID app, which you probably have on your phone already, along with 10 million other people; and <a href=\"https:\/\/feederwatch.org\/\">Project FeederWatch<\/a>, the world\u2019s longest running participatory science program which Sanderfoot now leads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"720\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1280 \/ 720;\" width=\"1280\" autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-content\/uploads\/Birdfeeder_720p_30fps.mp4\" playsinline><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">\u201cWhen I got the job, I was like, \u2018Oh my God, I\u2019ve <em>made<\/em> it!\u2019\u201d Sanderfoot remembers. She was beyond intimidated when Kevin McGowan, a big name in the bird world, popped into her office to say <em>hi<\/em>. But he\u2019d heard that her son loves owls, so he showed up with a handful of owl-themed gifts. \u201cEverybody is very nice and chill, and there\u2019s not that air of prestige in the building,\u201d she says. \u201cIt is a big deal to be at Cornell Lab \u2026 but it also does carry a lot of responsibility. I want to make sure that I&#8217;m representing the science as best as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">Project FeederWatch has been collecting data on birds in North America for four decades. Participants do weekly, two-day tallies from November to April, logging the highest number of each species they see. The team offers webinars, an app, printables, and a host of other materials to make participation as low-barrier as possible. It must be working: there are about 30,000 participants, some of whom have participated for 25 years straight. \u201cWe have, therefore, an immensely powerful dataset of repeated counts in the same place at the same time of year, year after year after year,\u201d Sanderfoot says. \u201cThat is a quantitative ecologist\u2019s dream!\u201d FeederWatch also runs optional surveys to gather information on bird-friendly backyard actions, engages with K-12 educators and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">And that\u2019s only about 50 percent of her job. The other half is staying true to the science she\u2019s built her career on. She\u2019s currently working with an interdisciplinary team of scientists at Cornell to investigate how wildfire smoke may affect migratory patterns. \u201cThe repercussions of that could be enormous. If things happen at that scale that cause that much derailment, birds are going to end up in places they&#8217;re not supposed to be. There\u2019s a lot to dig into here,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div>\n<div class=\"gb-element-56227fd0\">\n<figure>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" src=\"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-content\/uploads\/Black-capped-chickadee-Circle.webp\" alt=\"Black-capped chickadee, Poecile atricapilla, holding sunflower seed with feet. Photo by Sylvie Bouchard\" title=\"Black-capped chickadee-Circle\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-content\/uploads\/Black-capped-chickadee-Circle.webp 1000w, https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-content\/uploads\/Black-capped-chickadee-Circle-600x400.webp 600w, https:\/\/nelson.wisc.edu\/the-commons\/wp-content\/uploads\/Black-capped-chickadee-Circle-768x512.webp 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/>\n\n\n\n<figcaption class=\"gb-text\">Black-capped chickadee, Poecile atricapilla, holding sunflower seed with feet. Photo by Sylvie Bouchard<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-text\"><strong>Comfort in Migration<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">Sanderfoot hasn\u2019t quite reached the one-year mark at the Cornell Lab, but her plate \u2014 er, feeder? \u2014 is certainly full. \u201cI\u2019ve probably added too much to my plate, but I wouldn&#8217;t have it any other way,\u201d she says. And she\u2019s still working on settling into the East Coast life, from a new commute to a new preschool to an entirely new soundscape. \u201cIf you&#8217;re somebody who\u2019s really connected to nature \u2026 being put in a different place can be very exciting, but it can also be very jarring,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like this ache or sadness,\u201d she explains, to hear birds and recognize them, but not be able to immediately name them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">Though the birds out her window have changed, there\u2019s a thread that connects her own migration map: the joy that birds bring. \u201cWhether I&#8217;m picking up on black-capped chickadees on my birdwalk in Madison or observing pigeon guillemots out on the Salish Sea or hearing yellow-rumped warblers on my street in LA or here watching the Northern Cardinals at my window, those experiences bring me peace and joy,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"gb-text\">\u201cOh, look! A black-capped chickadee!\u201d she sees out her window, noticing that the feeder is crooked again \u2014 almost certainly from the squirrels. \u201cI need to go fix that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Olivia Sanderfoot came to birding looking for an \u201ceasy A,\u201d but now shares accolades and office space with the world\u2019s top birders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":51795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[46,39,67],"post_template":[57],"class_list":["post-51407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservation","tag-alumni-in-focus","tag-lead","tag-spring-2026","post_template-vertical-hero-template"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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