News

Red-shouldered Macaw

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…
Read more Can voices from the Macaulay Library help return illegally captured birds back home?
Mission Accomplished: students and staff return with new recordings of Australian birds

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…
Read more Mission Accomplished: students and staff return with new recordings of Australian birds
Shining Bronze-Cuckoo

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…
Read more The joys of recording bird sounds
Cerulean Warbler

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…
Read more Female bird song