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Tucked amid the trees andwetlands of Sapsucker WoodsSanctuary, the Cornell Lab ofOrnithology is a testament tohuman curiosity and a pas-sion for learning about and protecting nature. It is a hometo people who make it theirlife’s work to ask questionsabout birds, whales, elephants,frogs, and fish. It is a portal toappreciation of the naturalworld, whether you live a miledown the road or miles fromanywhere.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

The Birding

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Planting the SeedArthur A. “Doc” Allen founded the lab. Afterearning undergraduate and graduate degreesfrom Cornell, he pushed for creation of thecountry’s first graduate program in ornithology.The university responded, and in 1915, theLab of Ornithology was born, although it washoused in the entomology and limnologydepartment.

Birder, businessman, and friend Lyman Stuarthelped Allen take the next step—creating aphysical home for the Lab of Ornithology.He and others purchased and donated thefarmland that became Sapsucker WoodsSanctuary. Stuart also helped finance theconstruction of the first building, dedicatedin 1957. Freestanding trailers were addedpiecemeal on the lot as the lab grew … andgrew … and grew.

A World-Class InstitutionToday the Cornell Lab of Ornithology ishoused in the new Imogene Powers JohnsonCenter for Birds and Biodiversity, whichopened in summer 2003. Most often it isstill called the lab or, affectionately, the Labof O. Staff and students number nearly 200,working in a mind-boggling array of programstailored to the lab’s mission: interpreting andconserving the earth’s biological diversitythrough research, education, and citizen science focused on birds. As a nonprofitadministrative unit of Cornell University,work at the lab is supported in part by its33,000 members. About 100,000 people passthrough the visitors’ center each year. Millionsmore visit vicariously via the lab’s top-notchwebsite: www.birds.cornell.edu.

Visiting the LabSapsucker Woods is laced with more than fourmiles of wood-chipped trails meanderingthrough trees, over boardwalks, near wetlands,and around the 10-acre pond. Visitors maysee the stately great blue heron stalking theshallows for fish, a tangle of turtles sunningon a log, or some of the more than 200species of birds that have been spotted here. Indoors seems like outdoors in front of the

observatory’s 30-foot wall of windows, withhandy spotting scopes nearby. The bird songfrom the speakers is real, picked up by outdoormicrophones. It’s a peaceful place to ponderthe pond or to monitor the bird-feeding gar-den. Wildlife artwork adorns the walls. Stepinto a reconstructed study featuring muralsby renowned painter Louis Agassiz Fuertes.Go upstairs for a bird’s-eye view of the

sanctuary from the smaller “tree house”observatory and visit the Adelson Library.View high-definition movies about birds andnature playing in Bartels Theater. Listen tobird and animal voices in the sound studio,and record your own attempts to imitatethem. Compare colorful sonograms thatmake sounds visible. Interactive kiosks offeran easy way to learn more about the birdshere. Buy “birdy” things in the Wild BirdsUnlimited at Sapsucker Woods gift shop. You’llcome away from the 12-minute multimediaprogram in the Object Theater with a betterunderstanding of what goes on at the laband how you can be a part of it through citizen science.

An Army of Citizen ScientistsCollecting the observations of everydaybirders for scientific use has been a hallmarkof the Cornell Lab of Ornithology from itsinception. Only by employing the eyes andears of bird watchers can scientists gatherthe data needed to get the big picture aboutthe distribution and abundance of birds, aprocess made infinitely faster by the growthof the internet and online data reporting.

The observations of citizen scientists havehelped document the declines of somespecies, the range expansions of others, andeven the spread of avian diseases across thecontinent. The observations of birders helpthe lab study birds in the city and birds inthe forest and help answer questions abouthow proximity to humans, pollution, andloss of habitat affect different species.

The lab runs a dozen citizen science projectsthrough all seasons, and these demand varying

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Indoors seems like outdoors in front of theobservatory’s 30-foot wall of windows, withhandy spotting scopes nearby.

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These autonomousrecording units (ARUs)consist of a hard drive,housing, and microphonearray that can bemounted in a forest or anchored to theocean floor.

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levels of time commitment—from as little as15 minutes per year in the annual GreatBackyard Bird Count, to as often as you likevia the eBird online reporting program, whichallows you to keep track of your observationsover time and explore data posted from allover the country. By joining one or more ofthese citizen science projects you’ll learn moreabout birds, habitat, and behavior. You caneven peek into the lives of cavity-nesting birdswith the nest box cams on our website—11cameras follow the courtship, egg-laying,and chick-rearing behaviors of owls, osprey,bluebirds, and more.

Learning About BirdsIn addition to the citizen science projects,the lab offers others ways to expand yourknowledge of birds. Take a college-levelcourse in your own place at your own pacewith the lab’s Home Study Course in BirdBiology. The new BirdSleuth curriculum isdesigned to help elementary and middle-school students discover science through

bird projects. The first module was launchedin 2006. You just have a question about birds?Try the lab’s All About Birds website:www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds, thebest and most popular site about birds andbirding on the web. It includes an onlinebird guide with pictures, sounds, and allsorts of cool facts about hundreds of birds.Those who live in the Finger Lakes region canattend the Monday night seminar series, enrollin the spring field ornithology course, and takepart in special events with guided bird walks.

Peeps, Cheeps, Solos, and SerenadesFrom its earliest days, the lab has had a special interest in bird and animal voices andwhat they reveal about a creature’s healthand habits. Doc Allen and his students werepioneers in the field, recording the first birdsongs on a film sound track. It used to takea wagonload of heavy equipment to mounta sound-recording expedition. Today’s digitalrecording units, parabolas, and directionalmicrophones are wonderfully sensitive and

lightweight. Couple that with new soundanalysis software, and a whole new worldopens up before your eyes and ears.

The world’s largest collection of natural soundsis held in the climate-controlled archives ofthe lab’s Macaulay Library, which includesmore than 165,000 recordings of birds, bats,whales, insects, frogs, elephants, and othercreatures. Sound archivists are adding to thecollection daily. These sounds are used byresearchers around the world. They have alsobeen used in everything from museum exhibitsand Hollywood movies to singing alarmclocks and handheld PDAs that help usersidentify birds in the field. The MacaulayLibrary is putting the finishing touches on anew computer application that will allow thepublic to search the archive and listen toselected recordings. The marine collection isalready online, with the birds soon to follow.

Actually watching behavior in its naturalsetting is a key part of learning about ananimal. With that in mind, the MacaulayLibrary is now building its video collection.The high-definition movies in the BartelsTheater were produced in the MacaulayLibrary. A documentary-length production isnow in the works, delving into the world ofunderwater sound and the impact human-generated noise may be having on thecreatures of the deep.

Each year the experts from Macaulay Libraryhold a weeklong sound recording workshopin the Tahoe National Forest. Participantslearn how to effectively handle a portablefield recording system to make scientificallyaccurate recordings.

Building Electronic EarsSometimes electronic ears are needed to dowhat human ears cannot. The engineers in thelab’s bioacoustics research program createremote recording devices used by researchersaround the world. These autonomous recordingunits (ARUs) consist of a hard drive, housing,and microphone array that can be mounted ina forest or anchored to the ocean floor. ARUshave been used in the Elephant ListeningProject in Africa, studies of whales, and inthe search for the ivory-billed woodpecker in the dense forests of Arkansas. Once ARUrecordings are downloaded and returned tothe lab, they can be turned into sonograms

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Lab founder Arthur A. Allen, Louisiana expedition 1935

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and studied with another lab invention:sound-analysis software called Raven.Programmers developed a user-friendly ver-sion for the public called Raven Lite. Thelab’s engineers are also working on a newprogrammable radio tag to track birds andother animals for longer periods of time oreven to follow bird migration, about whichso much remains unknown.

So Many QuestionsAside from the work being done throughcitizen science projects, the lab’s scientists,students, and visiting scholars are carrying onmuch original research. In the evolutionarybiology laboratory, for example, researchersare extracting DNA from living birds orspecimens to discover fascinating informationabout the relationships among species andtheir lifestyles. Paternity tests on chicks, forexample, can determine if a female is standingby her mate or straying from the nest.

The Cornell University Museum of Vertebratesis also housed in the Johnson Center, with1,000,000 fish; 45,000 birds; 3,200 eggs;and 15,000 specimens each of mammals,reptiles, and amphibians, some now extinct.Steel drawers, shelves, bottles, and boxesprovide storage in climate-controlled rooms.Students and scientists use the collections intheir studies. By taking a minute sample ofDNA from a Bachman’s warbler specimen, aspecies now believed extinct, scientists wererecently able to reconstruct the warbler’sfamily tree, finding some surprising twists. There are some amazing things tucked awayin the museum: an orangutan, a baby whale,a platypus, a huge collection of handcraftedwooden eggs, and even the stomach contentsof squirrels from decades ago. The latter wereused in research that compared what squirrelseat now to what they ingested in the past. Thecollection even includes historic specimensof the ivory-billed woodpecker and thenow-extinct passenger pigeon.

Conservation MattersThe whole point in collecting so much dataabout birds and animals through citizen science, research, and sound and videoarchiving is to learn what it takes to keepthe earth in balance and perhaps undo someof the environmental trauma inflicted bypollution and destruction of habitat. Thelab’s bird population studies department

takes raw data from research projects andextracts their meaning. Trends and insightsbecome species-specific plans created by thelab’s conservation science department. Inaddition to countless studies and publishedpapers, the lab has produced land managers’guides aimed at conserving dwindling popu-lations of scarlet tanagers, wood thrushes,and other forest birds. The lab worked withPartners in Flight to identify rapidly decliningspecies and produce the first North AmericanLandbird Conservation Plan, hoping to influ-ence decision makers and revive vulnerablebird populations. The lab’s neotropical birdconservation program is gathering baselinedata about bird populations in Mexico, whereso many North American birds spend theirwinters; working with biologists in Cuba tohelp with training and resources; and keepingtabs on the legal and illegal caged-bird trade,because of its impact on bird populations.The Cornell Lab of Ornithology leads thesearch for the ivory-billed woodpecker,rediscovered in Arkansas in 2004, and willbe lending its expertise to other searchesbeginning in states where the bird once lived.

Accessible Bird KnowledgeThe information technology wizards at thelab make the projects work and make thedeluge of data accessible to everyone. Theydevelop web-based interactive programs thatcollect bird data on a continent-wide scalefor projects such as eBird, Project FeederWatch,and the Great Backyard Bird Count. Theyproduce the analysis tools that turn raw

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Fitzpatrick wants to grow membership in the lab,so a critical mass of people “thinking globallyand acting locally” may preserve the environmentand its creatures, keeping this a world in whichbirds will always be seen outside our windowsand heard filling the woods with song.

Members are crucial tothe Lab of Ornithology.They participate in labprograms, support thelab’s mission, and providethe single largest sourceof financial support forlab operations. Thebenefits of membershipare numerous, includingthe award-winningmagazine, Living Bird,the quarterly newsletter,BirdScope, and variouslab discounts.

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data into maps, graphs, and tables.Computer programmers at the lab built theinfrastructure for the Birds of North Americaonline edition, and are now coordinating theAvian Knowledge Network, an unprecedentedeffort to link more than 60 million bird datarecords kept at institutions all over the western hemisphere.

A Vision of the FutureJohn Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Labof Ornithology, envisions an even brighterfuture for this one-of-a-kind institution. “Ourcentral goal is to promote environmentallysound decisions based on science,” he says.“We strive to move human society towardinvesting in the permanent protection ofnatural systems all across our precious planet.”To further that goal, Fitzpatrick is workingto endow the citizen science projects, sothey will no longer survive precariously onshort-term grants. He wants to grow mem-bership in the lab, so a critical mass ofpeople “thinking globally and acting locally”may preserve the environment and its crea-tures, keeping this a world in which birdswill always be seen outside our windowsand heard filling the woods with song.

Pat LeonardStaff Writer, Lab of Ornithology

For more information:Cornell Lab of Ornithology159 Sapsucker Woods RoadIthaca, New York 14850(800) 843-BIRDE-mail: cornellbirds@cornell.eduWebsite: www.birds.cornell.edu

The world’s largestcollection of naturalsounds is held in theclimate-controlledarchives of the lab’sMacaulay Library …165,000 recordings ofbirds, bats, whales,insects, frogs, elephants,and other creatures.

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