NEW YORK -- On a chilly October morning, Melissa Breyer arrived at the World Trade Center at 6:30 a.m. She carefully surveyed through the high-rise buildings in the area, searching for birds that have fallen to the ground after colliding with a building.

As a volunteer for Project Safe Flight, a program run by the NYC Bird Alliance to monitor bird collisions across the city, she has been walking this path during the early mornings of every migration season for the past five years. On days when collisions are expected to be high, her routes start as early as 5 a.m.

"I'd like to make sure that I could find as many birds as possible," said Breyer. "The idea of them dying in vain just makes me sad, and I want them all to be counted in the data (that is) so important."

Every year, during

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