ALLISON PARK, Pa. - Richard Nugent is Pennsylvania's king of bird "block-busting."
The telltale song of a Carolina wren, a pair of blue jays, or, best of all, a recently fledged barn swallow sitting on a wire could get Nugent's name on another of the 10-square-mile blocks - 4,937 in all - into which the state has been divided for the Second Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas.
"You don't have to go out of your way to be a part of the atlas," said Nugent, 63, of Allison Park, who has found birds in 606 blocks. "You can observe a lot of breeding activity in your backyard. Right now, you might catch house finches bringing their babies to the feeder."
Officials are making a final push to add a few thousand volunteers to the 3,000 recruited so far for the five-year project to scour the state and document birds that find it a suitable place to raise their young. Coordinated by the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh and the Pennsylvania Game Commission, the atlas repeats one done two decades ago.
It wraps up at the end of the year, and preliminary results show some positives.
Bald eagles made 11 appearances in the first atlas. So far, this atlas has identified 108 nesting pairs and nearly 300 possible breeders. Sandhill cranes and merlin falcons - neither in the first atlas - are showing up by the dozens.
It's not all good news, though. "There are a few birds that took a dramatic downturn from the first atlas," said project coordinator Bob Mulvihill, field ornithologist at the natural history museum's Powdermill Nature Reserve.
The ruffed grouse, Pennsylvania's official game bird, "is all around the state - there are over 1,500 records - but in the previous atlas there were 1,000 more records, and they covered a much fuller area," Mulvihill said. "So it's still a common bird, but it looks like something is changing."
That's where scientists can step in, said Todd Katzner, director of conservation and field research at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh.
"There is no other atlas program for birds that gives us these long-term trends in quite the same way," he said. "From a research perspective, we can use this as a starting point for all kinds of programs."
The prospect of helping prevent the decline of a native bird species is a good way to recruit volunteers, said Mike Fialkovich, 43, of Penn Hills. Fialkovich coordinates the efforts of volunteers monitoring 80 blocks in Allegheny, Washington, Westmoreland and Fayette Counties.
"It's important for conservation," he said. "It can show us any issues with habitat protection. So I try to emphasize that, but it's also neat to get out and see bird breeding behavior."
Though there are only six months left to report birds to the atlas, it's not too late for volunteers - even those with no bird-watching experience - to participate.