The Internet Bird Collection joins the Macaulay Library

By Kathi Borgmann 28 Feb 2020

In the early 1980s Josep del Hoyo, a doctor in a small village in Spain, decided to spend 13 months traveling around Africa to see as much wildlife as he could. Little did he know, this trip would send him on another journey that would forever change the course of his life. Before he left…

Read more The Internet Bird Collection joins the Macaulay Library

Recordist of Note: Theodore “Ted” Parker III

Recordist of Note: Theodore “Ted” Parker III

By Guest post 19 Feb 2020

William Young, a young birder from Pennsylvania, first came across Ted Parker’s name in Kenn Kauffman’s Kingbird Highway at age eight. Young was fascinated by Parker’s birding adventures and was amazed to discover that Ted Parker grew up in the same town—Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Not only are Parker and Young from the same town, but Young…

Read more Recordist of Note: Theodore “Ted” Parker III

Recordist of Note: Valerie Heemstra

Recordist of Note: Valerie Heemstra

By Macaulay Library Team 15 Jan 2020

Valerie Heemstra has been watching birds for most of her life and although medicine won out on the career front, Valerie continues to pursue her love of birds. In fact, according to her eBird profile, Valerie retired so she could spend more time birding. Valerie has been busy birding, she has 1,143 recordings and 6,479…

Read more Recordist of Note: Valerie Heemstra

Macaulay Library’s Year in Review

By Kathi Borgmann 8 Jan 2020

In 2019, the Macaulay Library marked its 90th year of archiving natural sounds. From the first recording of a wild bird in North America on May 18, 1929 to today, our goal has always been to preserve the sounds of our world for everyone to hear. Thanks to your audio contributions and support, the Macaulay…

Read more Macaulay Library’s Year in Review

Publications using media in 2019

By Team Macaulay Library 7 Jan 2020

Papers published in 2019 that used media from the Macaulay Library Amaral, B. R., T. O. Laranjeiras, M. Cohn-Haft, G. A. Leite, R. Czaban, and C. L. Rutt (2019). Major range extension for Orange-fronted Plushcrown Metopothrix aurantiaca in the central Amazon of Brazil. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 139:99–104. Andriola, J. V. P., and…

Read more Publications using media in 2019

A Bird’s Beak is Shaped By More Than What it Eats

By Kathi Borgmann 18 Dec 2019

Darwin’s finches taught us that over time, what a bird eats can shape the size of the bird’s beak. A seminal study conducted by Peter and Rosemary Grant on Daphne in the Galapagos Islands showed that as small and soft seeds were replaced by tougher and larger seeds on Daphne, the average beak size of…

Read more A Bird’s Beak is Shaped By More Than What it Eats

Voices from the field

By Mariel Ortega 16 Dec 2019

I wiggled my toes, watching as my hiking boots traced patterns in the orange sand of the Australian mulga. Australia…I was in Australia! Yet, for being on the other side of the planet, Australia was less otherworldly than I expected. What did feel otherworldly was being a sound recordist. Here I was traversing the wilderness…

Read more Voices from the field

Bill Macaulay, Lab of Ornithology benefactor, dies at 74

Bill Macaulay, Lab of Ornithology benefactor, dies at 74

By Macaulay Library Team 12 Dec 2019

We are deeply saddened by the loss of William E. “Bill” Macaulay, a longtime benefactor of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, whose name graces the digital media archive—The Linda R. and William E. Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The archive honors both Bill, an avid bird watcher, and his wife Linda R.…

Read more Bill Macaulay, Lab of Ornithology benefactor, dies at 74

Macaulay Library helps researchers identify new species of snipe

By Kathi Borgmann 4 Dec 2019

Snipe are not just an urban legend; more than 20 snipe species occur throughout the Americas as well as across the Old World. And researchers just discovered that one of those snipe species in South America might be two different species. New research out this month in the journal Ibis suggests that the South American…

Read more Macaulay Library helps researchers identify new species of snipe

Northern Mockingbirds Imitate Frogs and Toads

By Kathi Borgmann 22 Nov 2019

Northern Mockingbirds exuberantly bounce back and forth between the song of a cardinal, a woodpecker, a car alarm, and what seems like everything in between. New research published in Behavioral Processes adds frogs and toads to the list of sounds mimicked by Northern Mockingbirds. David Gammon and Anna Corsiglia from Elon University in North Carolina…

Read more Northern Mockingbirds Imitate Frogs and Toads