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Secret Lives of Backyard Birds
Where is that titmouse going with all your sunflower seeds? How far will a chickadee travel for food in a day, or a month? Is "your" favorite nuthatch also a regular at someone else's feeders? We know surprisingly little about the habits of our most familiar birds, but a new banding technology is letting Project FeederWatch leader David Bonter get in on their secrets. Watch the video. |
Thalo, a captive-raised Green-cheeked Parakeet, by Abby McBride.
What You Need to Know Before You Buy a Caged Bird
This summer, a wide-ranging Interpol sting highlighted the illegal side of the caged bird trade—a source of thousands of bird deaths per year that, sadly, often goes unnoticed. Agents in 32 countries arrested thousands of traffickers and confiscated some 8,700 animals. Cornell Lab scientist Eduardo Iñigo-Elias has worked for decades to combat illegal trade in caged birds. On our blog, he describes the scale of the problem and how to be sure a caged bird is legal and captive bred. Read it. |
A Great Black-backed Gull chick stretches its wings in the morning light. Photo by Shailee Shah.
Slideshow: Dodging Dive-Bombers on an Island in Maine
Not all summer jobs involve mowing lawns or frying fries. For two Cornell undergraduates each year, summer consists of roaming a rocky Maine island to keep tabs on 120 Herring Gull nests. Shailee Shah was one of those interns this year. She kept her camera close to hand and wrote about life on Appledore Island for our blog, from the first dive-bomb attack to the moment she hung up her worn-out, poop-stained shoes. See her photos and read her story. |
Which shimmering aeronautical expert is this? Photo by Malcolm Gold via Birdshare.
What Bird Is This?
This high-flying, long-winged species is a common summer sight across much of North America. In winter you'll need to hop a flight to Brazil to catch up with them, and during migration you can pick them up on weather radar maps. One last clue: John James Audubon looked to these birds for help when choosing an inn for the night. What species is this? Check your guess and learn more. |
Cornell students Eric Gulson and Jen Goforth take digital recordings of Scarlet Tanagers. Sketch by Abby McBride.
Training a New Wave of "Digital Ornithologists"
Cornell professor David Winkler got his start in ornithology in the 1970s, when cameras used film, recorders used tape, and computers used punch cards. Today's ornithologists must be as comfortable with cameras and computers as they are with catbirds and cardinals. So this summer, Winkler helped a group of Cornell undergraduates gain some real-world practice with a project collecting digital recordings of nesting Scarlet Tanagers. Read, listen to, and watch their work. |
Fashion Advice From Victorians: Inspired by her daughters' fashionable sunglasses, Lab scientist Caren Cooper traces how the citizen-science projects of today are a revival of a Victorian pastime, championed by two very different pioneers: a poetic military man and a fussy Cambridge scholar.
Latino Youth Summit: Our Celebrate Urban Birds project hosted two groups of Latino students who've formed conservation groups in Syracuse and Long Island. The bilingual conference allowed the students to trade notes and to hear from our scientists.
Young Birders Invade: Virginia high-school junior Sayed Malawi recaps this year's Young Birders Event, featuring owls, Mourning Warblers, and a night at the museum.
Twelve-Year-Old Puts eBird Over 100 Million! Youngster Liron Gertsman of Vancouver, British Columbia, submitted eBird's 100 millionth observation, an American Robin, winning a prize set chosen for him by our eBird team.
Take a Road Trip: Our Upcoming Bird Festivals webpage makes it easy to plan your next birding destination. You can look through listings by calendar or on a map, so you can start planning your road trip right from the page. |
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