Macaulay Library recordings have become a unique resource for scientists from many disciplines. We are actively collecting sounds and video from endangered species. In some cases, our collection contains the only known recordings of birds that are thought to be extinct. Our sounds have played a key role in creating the taxonomic tree of all bird species. In addition, our sounds have been used to study how the human brain responds to natural stimuli. Engineers trying to create machines that discriminate among sounds have used our collection and its vast set of examples.

Case Studies

	Displays of the Birds of Paradise
	Edwin Scholes III, now Video Curator for the Macaulay Library, has painstakingly described the elaborate courtship displays of Carola's Parotia. His video specimens are available in the online archive for anyone to examine.
	Recordings Attract Bermuda Petrels
	To help draw displaced or prospecting pairs of cahow (Pterodroma cahow) to new nesting burrows on higher and safer ground, the restoration team needed recordings of vocalizations that could be transmitted to attract courting birds. This tactic has been successful with other colonial nesting species.
	Anthropologist Studying Nahuatl
	Jonathan D. Amith uses sounds from the Macaulay Library to elicit Nahuatl names and information about bird species from native peoples. Amith is creating the Nahuatl Learning Environment, an online encyclopedia of language, flora and fauna and many more aspects of Nahuatl culture.