Heidi Faulkner

I help out with Project FeederWatch as a project assistant. I’m involved in providing support for data entry on our website and in our mobile app, managing project social media pages, co-managing our email inboxes, and aiding the shipping processes for each project. It is rewarding to help people get interested in the project, and to help them feel comfortable accessing everything.

When my mom decided to put bird feeders out on our porch, my family would count how many birds came to the feeder and whether or not we’d seen them before. As I learned more about birds, my interest in them only grew. I followed my older sister’s footsteps and took the ornithology course offered at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF). It was the best class I had taken there, so I became the teaching assistant for the lab portion for my remaining years.

While at ESF, I also joined the bird club which led me on all sorts of adventures searching for birds, which prompted me to competitively start building my bird life list. I became president of the club and loved giving younger students the same experiences I had that made me so enthusiastic about ornithology. I’ve had the pleasure of working seven field seasons as an avian technician and was able to get a lot of experience in bird banding. Working for the Cornell Lab has always been a dream of mine, and I’m happy to be able to get the public engaged in our programs and to get them as excited about birds and nature as I am.

Education

B.S., Conservation Biology and a minor in Environmental Writing and Rhetoric, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Beyond the Lab

When I’m not birding, I love to make art. While I have a lot of experience with watercolors, I have recently been experimenting with digital designs. The subject of my artwork is usually nature; I love to incorporate fungi, plants, birds, and more into designs, as well as to make little knickknacks to put on my Etsy shop.