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Total Media:
Number of Species
Birds:
9,532
Mammals:
570
Fishes:
545
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Videos From Cornell Student Expeditions

Spring Migrants in the U.S.

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The Macaulay Library is built entirely by a community of media contributors. You can also help by boxing birds in MerlinVision, and rating quality.

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Your generous tax-deductible gift will support the Macaulay Library, part of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a non-profit organization supported by friends and members.

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News and Publications

Meet Our Team

The Macaulay Library is supported by a team of hard-working people who are dedicated to birds, nature, and scientific discovery. Our director, Dr. Mike Webster, leads a team of archivists and developers that support a world-class archive of media documenting animal behavior. Visit Our Team page to learn about us. The scientists and students that work… Read more

Building and Using the Macaulay Library Collections

When you don’t know something, you look it up. Perhaps you Google it, or go directly to Wikipedia. If you’re of a certain age, you used to go to a library and find the row of identical, black and gold books of Encyclopedia Britannica.  You may even ask someone, but you go to a trusted… Read more

Contributor Profile: Lance Benner

Lance Benner records audio of birds while mountain biking at night. He has regular routes and stops, and catches some recordings opportunistically, like an American dipper singing. Living in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains, he does most of his birding around his home. But he has also done some extensive traveling. As a Planetary… Read more

Spring Recording Contest

This event has ended, but stay tuned for future contests. Congratulations to our winners for this time, Lynden Schofield, David Eberly, and Josh Fecteau! Now that spring is well upon us here in the Northern Hemisphere, bird song fills the air! Why let it go undocumented? As a way to encourage everyone out there to go out… Read more

Global Big Day—13 May 2017

It’s that time of year again! Four weeks from today is Global Big Day. Your contributions to the past two Global Big Days have set back-to-back world records for the most bird species seen in a single day. Last year’s Global Big Day featured more than 60% of the world’s bird species in a single day, with… Read more

The Macaulay Library in the Sonic Sea

Jacques Cousteau’s The Silent World (1956) seriously underestimated the sounds marine life make, but he may have captured a bygone time when the ocean was quieter than it is now. The Sonic Sea documents the cacophony humans have created in the ocean. With increasingly global commerce, ships with loud engines are crisscrossing oceans on super highways,… Read more

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Cornell Guides to Bird Sounds


Master Set
Master Set
4,928 recordings
737 species
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1,379 recordings
729 species
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