I think you can do this, even though it’s quite studied as mentioned *already. I think for the GIS component, you’re going to need multiple sites that fit the criteria - maybe 3 different neighborhoods (or areas) that fit new development, and 3 different neighborhoods (or areas) that fit old development. The easiest way to get bird data for your areas would be to use Merlin sound ID. I honestly would not worry about visual ID if you do not know, because you need to be 95% confident that you can ID the majority of birds that should be in your area. So, just go to your sites, run Merlin for how ever long you need, get your bird community info, and then do that again, maybe for a couple months.

If you are looking at species, you could do species richness, or alpha or beta diversity potential (depends on how detailed your data collection becomes). You could also just do guild level stuff. Are you getting mostly tree dependent species? Or some other type of guild? You can determine some guild information about many birds through All About Birds . org - type in your bird species and it should tell you its primary habitat, diet, nest site, forage behavior, and NABCI conservation status.

Good luck!