BirdNet—The Ornithological Information Source
The Ornithological Council (1997–)

URL: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/BIRDNET/index.html

SITE SUMMARY: This Web site, "all about ornithology—the scientific study of birds," features data provided by The Ornithological Council. It is offered online by the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. Scroll to the bottom of the Web page for links to major areas of this Web site, including "What Is Ornithology?" Ornithological Issues, Birds and Birding Information, Periodicals and Magazines (with indications of what each publication's Web site has online), Research Assistance, Recent Ornithological Literature Online (not online texts, but online bibliographical citations, and special summaries called abstracts, on ornithological research), and "Guidelines to the Use of Wild Birds in Research" (a manual for the humane study of birds). See also a link to a complete index to BirdNet sources at www.nmnh.si.edu/BIRDNET/mainindex.html. Also see picture links to Ornithological Council member organizations' Web sites.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES

1. Go to the BirdNet Web site. Click the "What Is Ornithology?" link in the General Information area. Define in two phrases the general meaning of ornithology. Identify eight particular aspects of ornithology that ornithologists do. Reveal what people can do to help ornithological scientists. Extra Activity: Identify two or more aspects of ornithology as provided at the Birding in the U.S.A. and Around the World Web site whose url is in the Related Internet Sites section below.
2. Go to the Learning to Birdwatch area of www.ornithology.com. Identify identification tips two through nine on what to do during birdwatching field trips. Extra Activity: Identify more bird identification tips as provided at Birding in the U.S.A. and Around the World Web site. (Full urls and Web site summaries for both Web sites are in the Related Internet Sites section below.) (Note: Go to the North American Breeding Bird Survey Web site via a link that works at the BirdNet Web site, then if the link works, identify the site's identification tips.)
3. Click the Ornithological Journals link in BirdNet's Research Assistance area or the periodicals and journals link in the General Information area. Select two periodicals or magazines that have online articles or abstracts of articles. Go to the magazines' or periodicals' Web sites, then choose three birds for which there is information in online articles. Describe the birds using as many as possible of identification tips two through eight, and (optional) other tips, found for Question/Activity no. 2 above. Identify the article's main point. Tell how it exemplifies the tips. (Option: You may also choose another online article found at www.birdwatchersdigest.com or via the Web sites for the Audubon Society and "Excerpts from the Life Histories" in Birds of North America whose urls are cited in the Related Internet Sites section below.)
4. Choose two other birds in the ways suggested in Question/Activity no. 3 above. Find each bird's scientific name and classify it, listing its classification aspects as indicated via the Taxonomy and Systematics links on the Scientific links page found via the BirdNet Research Assistance area and the Bird Order and Species link in the BirdNet Birds and Birding area. See also the Classification/Taxonomy or Names areas of http://www.ornithology.com or the Nutty Birdwatcher's Identification area or at one of the sites you find via its Resources page. (Its url is cited in the Related Internet Sites section below.)
5. Keeping in mind the eight particular aspects of ornithology, and (optional) other aspects, that you found for Question/Activity no. 1 above, visit two periodical or magazine Web sites found as cited in Question/Activity no. 3 above. Select two of those particular aspects of ornithology, and find articles in the chosen magazines or periodicals that refer to these aspects. Identify those articles' features, and explain how those articles are examples of those aspects.

1. Identify suggestions for attracting birds to one's backyard that you find via BirdNet's Birds and Birding links area, especially that area's Birding on the Web link and that site's links. (See also tips for attracting birds at Web sites including www.ornithology.com, Care and Concern for Animals—Roots and Shoots Activities—Jane Goodall Institute, and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. [Their urls are cited in the Related Internet Sites section below. A BirdNet link goes to the Cornell Lab.]) Try one or more of these suggestions in your backyard, schoolyard garden, or community garden. Based on your observations, write a two hundred word report on how effective you find these suggestions.
2. Visit the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and Nutty Birdwatcher Web sites. (Their urls are cited in the Related Internet Sites section below.) Choose one bird from the Cornell Laboratory Web site's Bird of the Week feature and two birds found via the Nutty Birdwatcher's Identification page, plus four birds, one each, from Birding Databases, Online Field Guides, Specific Species, and Other Birding Sites, listed on the Nutty Birdwatcher's Resources page. Describe each bird selected using identification tips two through eight, and (optional) other tips, found at stated in Question/Activity no. 2 above. Adapt and apply Question/Activity no. 4 above to two of the birds selected.
3. Find a rare bird, an endangered bird, and an extinct bird via BirdNet's Endangered Species list link in its Research Assistance area and at Web sites cited in the note just below. Describe each bird's features, including www.ornithology.com's learning about birds tips three, four, five, seven, eight, then two, and six. Identify each bird's status. Explain why each one is endangered, rare, or extinct. (Note: Also find extinct, rare, and endangered birds via links at www.ornithology.com, in one of the articles in the magazines or journals found as indicated in Question/Activity no. 3 above, and at the Web sites: Audubon Science—Endangered Birds WatchList, the American Birding Association's Rare Bird Alert Reports, Extinct and Endangered Birds—Links to Sites, or Endangered Species—Birds—U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. [Their urls are cited in the Related Internet Sites section below.])
4. Keeping in mind the subject and activity of Question/Activity no. 8 above, suggest how you might do something to get a rare or endangered bird off the endangered or rare birds lists. (For help, see the Web sites for Audubon Science—Endangered Birds WatchList, Audubon Society [especially its Conservation and Action area], and the Nutty Birdwatcher [via its Resources page's Conservation and Rehabilitation links]. Their urls are cited in the Related Internet Sites section below.)
5. Select a bird that lives in the area where you live, found via BirdNet's Research Assistance area's Bird Observatories in the U.S. and Canada Web page and at other sites cited just below. Identify its features from identification tips you found for Question/Activity no. 2 above. (Find checklists at the Birding in the U.S.A. and Around the World Web sites, information at the Web site with links to Spring/Fall Maps of Migrant Birds and Bird Observatories and Migration Stations in the U.S., and via the migration link at ornithology.com, plus details at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology Web site or the Web site featuring "Excerpts from the Life Histories" in Birds of North America. [Find urls for these Web sites in the Related Internet Sites section below.])

RELATED INTERNET SITE(S)

Ornithology—The Science of Birds

http://www.ornithology.com/SiteMap.html

This site, created by a university professor of biological sciences and director of an environmental institute, features many annotated links about birdwatching and the scientific study of birds. Included are links to Learning to Birdwatch, News, Famous Early Ornithologists, FAQs, Careers in Ornithology, Question of the Month, Birds in the Backyard, Feeders and Feeding, Classification/Taxonomy, Names, Organizations and their Magazines and Journals, Aviaries and Zoos, Conservation, Ecobirding, Migration, Extinct Birds, Endangered Birds, E-mail an Ornithologist, Teacher Resources, and more.

Nutty Birdwatcher

http://nuthatch.birdnature.com/index.html

This site features a lot of information for birdwatchers and others interested in finding data about birds, especially in the Northeastern United States. Links go to an Introduction, Information on Bird Identifications (including general classification data), Gallery and Profiles, Habitats, Migration, Survival Needs, Odds and Ends, What's New (at this site), and Resources (with links to Birding Databases, Online Field Guides, Specific Species, Bird Monitoring, Conservation and Rehabilitation, Sanctuaries, Organizations, etc., Breeding Atlas, General Birding Interests, and Unique Sites with Interesting Information).

American Birding Association—Articles, FAQs, News, Young Birders, etc.

http://www.americanbirding.org/siteindex1.htm

Find the links for Birding—Features—Buiding Birding Skills—Keeping Field Notes, A Bird's Eye View newsletter for young people and its feature articles "What's That Bird?" and "Think Like A Bird," and Birding Links including Bird FAQs, Birding Listervs, and Ornithological Research Resources. On the index's next page, see links to Conservation, Education with "Early Birding" (an article on the ABA Education Initiative), Rare Bird Alert Reports, and Youth Birders with and Young Birders Connect (e.g., chat, webring, and penfriends), Young Birders of the Year Competition, and Young Birders News.

"Excerpts from the Life Histories" in Birds of North America

http://www.birdsofna.org/Excerpts.shtml

Supported by the American Ornithological Union, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, and the Academy of Natural Sciences, this Web site for this book for "twenty-first-century birders" has more than thirty online profiles of birds (e.g., Clark's Nutcracker, the Ruby Throated Hummingbird, and the Nashville Warbler). See also links to Bird Facts, and What Is BNA [the Birds of North America]?

Endangered Species—Birds—U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

http://endangered.fws.gov/wildlife.html#Species

Scroll to Species Listed in the U.S., and click Birds. On the next page, scroll down a list of birds listed alphabetically by common name, with scientific name links. Clicking a link brings basic information in a Species Profile (e.g., the bird's common and scientific names; its family, historic range, and current status; plus the date the status was reported). Links on the Profile page lead to more information on the bird (e.g., petitions for protecting the bird, press releases, government documents, and USFWS refuge reports).

Extinct and Endangered Birds—Links to Sites

http://search.msn.com (click Sciences in the Library area)

Follow links to Animals and Wildlife, Extinct Species or Endangered Species, and Birds.

Audubon Science—Endangered Birds WatchList

http://www.audubon.org/bird/watch/index.html

This Web page of the Audubon Society, with a coalition of conservationists called Partners in Flight, features a WatchList, yearly revised, of endangered birds by types, data on population decline, limited geographical range, plus breeding area, and habitat loss, with an invitation to Read About the Science Behind the WatchList. Links lead to Five Ways to Help Watchlist Birds (with emphasis on preventive action rather than last minute rescue attempts), Birds and Science—An Introduction, Kids WatchList Activities, and FAQs. Changing photos on the main page show "conservation priority" birds.

Care and Concern for Animals—Roots and Shoots Activities—Jane Goodall Institute

http://www.janegoodall.org/rs/activities (click link)

See the activities involving birds, among many nature related activities, offered for young people by this institute set up by the animal behaviorist and naturalist Jane Goodall.

Audubon Society

http://www.audubon.org

See the links to Birds and Science, Centers and Audubon News, Education, Conservation and Action, Audubon and the Internet; featured news articles, an Audubon Centers and Sanctuaries locator; and an Audubon Magazine index that leads to Web exclusive articles on birds and other wildlife.

Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology

http://birds.cornell.edu

Aiming to foster scientific literacy in birdwatchers through education and citizen science, this interactive site features Bird of the Week, Sound of the Week, and Slide of the Week, plus new press releases and lab news. Note also Conservation, Research, and Citizen Science, which includes Citizen Science Watch, Citizen Science in the Schoolyard, Classroom Feeder Watch, Bird Source, Birdhouse Network, and Some Bird Groups (e.g., Birds in Forested Landscapes and Great Backyard Bird Count). See, in addition, an Online Bird Guide in the Education area, More Good Stuff, such as Bird Feeding Tips, Bird FAQs, Birdhouse Tips, NestBoxCam, and a World Series of Birding, plus Multimedia and Collections, such as a Library of Natural Sounds, Audio Guides, and a Bio Acoustics Research Program. (A link at BirdNet to the Lab sometimes works.)

Birding in the U.S.A. and Around the World

http://www.birding.com

See links in box or at right to Ornithology, Checklists of Birds in Your Area (as seen in local bird observatories), Bird Records (e.g., biggest), detailed data on identifying birds (with link to USGS Bird ID Tips By Species), and more.

What Is Migration?

http://www.birdsource.org/birdcast/what_is_migration.html

On this information sheet sponsored in part by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, find out about this marvelous and mysterious natural phenomenon and birds' part in it.

Spring/Fall Maps of Migrant Birds, U.S. Bird Observatories and Migration Stations, etc.

http://www.mp1—pwrc.usgs.gov/birds/othbird.html (click links)

Field Notebook Primer: How To Take Good Field Notes by Robert B. Payne

http://www.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/birds/birddivresources/fieldnotes.html

See also Resources of the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology Bird Division which provides the primer online.

Bird Song Mneumonics

http://www.1000plus.com/BirdSong

Links go to birds or birds' voices for help in discovering how particular birds' voices sound if spelled or guessed in letters (e.g., an ovenbird chirps "teacher, teacher, teacher").