André A. Dhondt and Citizen Science
at The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology (CLO)
 

As the Director of the Bird Populations Unit at the CLO I am responsible for the science contents of most of the citizen science projects at the CLO. These projects include the study of urban pigeons, birds at feeders, birds breeding in nest boxes, bird migration, disease in house finches, impact of landscape fragmentation on birds in forested landscapes, … These projects have two complementary aims:

  • Take advantage of the very widespread interest in birds to involve volunteers in collecting data all across North America. For each project we develop a well-defined protocol that addresses specific research questions. Many projects have thousands of volunteer collaborators.
  • Increase science literacy in the general public by involving volunteers in research. Citizen science projects, therefore, have a very strong educational component

In many cases my graduate students also become involved in citizen science projects, and components of these projects become part of their Ph.D. Graduate students can contribute in important ways to these projects.

 Thus Stefan Hames played an essential role in analyzing the data collected in the "Project Tanager" and in the "Birds in Forested Landscapes" projects, by helping improve research protocols, by playing a major role in analyzing the data, and by helping develop Guidelines for Land Managers.
 

Similarly, Barry Hartup DVM, used the data from the House Finch Disease Survey as part of his Ph.D. thesis. He also helped improve the citizen-science data-collection protocol, analyzed the data, and is now a collaborator in the large NIH/NSF research project that evolved from this survey (link to page about project). This small project has now developed into a full-fledged NIH/NSF project