News

Can voices from the Macaulay Library help return illegally captured birds back home?

By Kathi Borgmann
Illegal wildlife trade is a booming billion-dollar business, ranking third among illegal activities after drug and human trafficking. Many millions of live and dead animals across the globe are sold every year for traditional medicines, jewelry, and personal collections. Among animals trafficked for the pet trade, birds are the most exploited group. Every year millions…

Mission Accomplished: students and staff return with new recordings of Australian birds

By Eliot Miller
Dawn found us in the midst of a deafening chorus of birdsong in the Australian bush. As we discussed our plan for the morning, hordes of hungry honeyeaters were already at work fighting for the sweet nectar of nearby flowers. As we set off on our separate ways through the red earth, low shrubs, and…

The joys of recording bird sounds

By Kathi Borgmann
We recently asked our followers why they record bird sounds. We received many heartfelt responses from recordists around the world. We could not have said it better ourselves! Here are Martina Nordstrand, Guillermo Funes, Wesley Rajaleelan, Erik Dale Ostrander, Ben Mirin, Mario Reyes,  Samim Akhter, Julia Plummer, Mike Hearell, and Laura Giannone in their own words…

Female bird song

By Kathi Borgmann
More and more scientists are turning their attention to female birds, uncovering new behaviors and changing the way we think about evolution (see the recent Living Bird article). Karan Odom, a Cornell Lab of Ornithology postdoctoral researcher, and her team used assets in the Macaulay Library and discovered that female bird song is present in…

Photos in the archive help build new Australian Birds of Prey book

By Mat Gilfedder
Thousands of birders and photographers archive their media every year in the Macaulay Library. Some of these photos are now featured in a new field guide on Australian birds of prey. Mat Gilfedder and his coauthors searched the Macaulay Library for photos of Australian raptors in flight and reached out to each photographer for permission…