The Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers a variety of programs, tools, and resources that can help land trusts incorporate bird conservation into land protection, stewardship, monitoring, and community engagement. This page highlights Cornell Lab programs that may support land trusts and their partners in learning about the bird communities on their lands, engaging volunteers and local communities, and demonstrating the ecological impact of their conservation efforts.
All About BirdsAll About Birds is an online guide to birds and bird watching with information about 589 North American species – identify birds, learn about life history, listen to sounds, and watch videos of bird behavior.
- Bird Academy
Bird Academy provides a collection of online courses and access to live events from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, including free online bird-related public lectures, educational videos, and birding-related games for kids.
- Birds of the World
Birds of the World, a powerful new subscription-based resource, compiles the most comprehensive, up-to-date ornithological data into one platform through integration of four major ornithological works.
- Celebrate Urban Birds
Celebrate Urban Birds is a citizen-science project developed to reach diverse urban audiences who do not already participate in science or scientific investigation. The project collects data from participants, providing valuable knowledge of how different environments influence birds in urban areas.
- eBird
eBird is one of the largest repositories of biodiversity data in the world, harnessing the passion and enthusiasm that people have for birds and turning it into a powerful tool for research, conservation, and community engagement.
- Garden for Birds
Garden for Birds is a community initiative that provides guidance to bird enthusiasts about native plants and habitat features they can add to their properties to better support birds.
- Great Backyard Bird Count
The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is a global, four-day event each February that invites people everywhere to count birds and share their observations online through eBird or the Merlin Bird ID app. Organized by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society, and Birds Canada, the GBBC provides a snapshot of late-winter bird populations across the world.
- K-12 Education
The K-12 Education program provides innovative resources that build science skills while inspiring young people to connect to local habitats, explore biodiversity, and engage in participatory science projects through inquiry-based science curriculum and activities.
- Macaulay Library
The Macaulay Library provides access to the world’s largest archive of wildlife sounds and videos, and allows users to search recordings by species for birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, arthropods, and even fishes. Additionally, digital audio guides are available for download.
- Merlin Bird ID
Merlin Bird ID helps you identify birds you see and hear. Merlin is unlike any other bird app—it’s powered by eBird, the world’s largest database of bird sightings, sounds, and photos. Merlin offers four different ways to identify birds.
- NestWatch
NestWatch is a nationwide nest-monitoring program used to study the current condition of breeding bird populations and how they may be changing over time as a result of climate change, habitat degradation and loss, expansion of urban areas, and the introduction of non-native plants and animals.
- Project FeederWatch
A November-April survey of birds that visit backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales in North America, Project FeederWatch is operated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Birds Canada.
