Cornell Cooperative Extension Celebrate Urban Birds 2008:

Youth from area schools learn about birds of prey at the live bird demonstration by The Raptor Project at Empire Fulton Ferry State Park

May 2008

Cornell University Cooperative Extension—NYC, in collaboration with the NYS Office of Parks and Historic Presentation, conducted this year’s “Celebrate Urban Birds-NYC!” activity with more than two dozen teachers and chaperones and almost 400 third and fourth graders from Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.  “Celebrate Urban Birds-NYC!” took place at Empire-Fulton Ferry State

Park in Brooklyn, NY in May 2008.  It was held in conjunction with “Mad About Raptors,” an experiential educational workshop focused on birds of prey sponsored by NYS Office of Parks.

Participating teachers were provided “Celebrate Urban Birds!” Activity Kits in advance of the event to prepare students for learning about urban birds and bird habitats. Once onsite at Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, the teachers and students engaged in a hands-on learning exercise, guided by Cornell Extension educators, to observe and record data about birds in the Park that day.  The students and teachers were provided the opportunity to engage in ‘citizen science,’ collecting and providing their data to Cornell Extension for submission to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in support of its global “Celebrate Urban Birds!” program.  The data will be used by scientists who are studying birds that live in and visit urban places.

Participating schools included:

PS 8 (The Robert Fulton School) and PS 269 (Nostrand School) in Brooklyn;

PS  134 (Henrietta Szold School), PS 140 (Nathan Straus School) and PS 184 (Shuang Wen School) in Manhattan; and

PS 153 (Maspeth Elementary School) in Queens.

The “Celebrate Urban Birds!” bird identification activity was well received by students and teachers alike.  According to Gretchen Ferenz, Senior Extension Associate, Cornell University Cooperative Extension-NYC, “The teachers seemed to really appreciate that their students could connect directly to nature right here in New York City.  In their designated ‘study areas,’ the students and teachers waited patiently and then made observations to identify each bird that appeared.  They also thought about whether they had seen that bird species before.”

September 2008

Also in 2008, Extension Educators Emily Gunter-Gayton and Véronique Lambert conducted a “Celebrate Urban Birds-NYC!” presentation at the Galaxy III Extension Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, in September.

Educators provided a detailed overview of the “Celebrate Urban Birds!” program with examples of implementation and experiences in New York City. Attendees learned how to use the materials provided in the “Celebrate Urban Birds! Activity Kit.”  Interactive learning activities included bird identification of 15 commonly-found species in urban areas as well as “Who Are You?,” a bird biography activity developed by Regan Brooks from the Urban Bird Sounds Project and Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Learn more about sound activities led by youth from Codman Academy Charter Public School: Urban Bird Sounds Project.

Cornell Cooperative Extension Celebrate Urban Birds 2007:

Cornell Cooperative Extension in New York City and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology partnered with local non-profit, environmental, educational, and community-based organizations to provide people of all ages and backgrounds, and from all boroughs of NYC, with opportunities to "Celebrate Urban Birds!" Partners included Central Park Conservancy, Queens Botanical Garden, NYC Audubon, New York Restoration Project, Crotona Park Nature Center, and TRUCE (Harlem Children's Zone).

Rock Pigeon by Katherine Smith

Celebrate Urban Birds at Central Park on May 12 2007

Download a pdf of all "Celebrate Urban Birds!" NYC events in 2007

Our main celebratory event took place in Central Park on Saturday, May 12th 2007 from 12pm until 4pm in collaboration with Central Park Conservancy.

Hundreds of people visited the Harlem Meer and Dana Discovery Center to participate in event activities that included a live raptor demonstration by the NY Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary & Audubon Center, mural creation with Youme Landowne and New School students, bird walks, public arts project with artist Jimmy Grashow, native bird habitat workshops by Solar One, dance performance with Kristin McArdle and dancers, Birds of Central Park book signing by Cal Vornberger, and learning about citizen science and urban greening with Cornell Cooperative Extension in New York City and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology!

Other Featured Events

Queens Botanical Garden

Crotona Park

New York Restoration Project
Fiesta! at Swindler Cove