Finished! Looks like this project is out of data at the moment!
This is the last of our shore and wetland birds. The data from this collection is invaluable a we've seen sharp declines in many of these species over the past 30 years.
Research
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, nestled in the Finger Lakes region of New York, is a world-renowned ornithological research, education, and conservation facility. Among our collections are more than 300,000 nest records from the North American Nest Record Card Program that ran from the 1960s until the early 2000s. Some cards pre-date the 1960s, likely because some naturalists were collecting this information before the formal program existed. Thousands of nesting birds, were observed by citizen scientists, who then submitted detailed accounts of bird nesting behavior.
[Top left to bottom right: Cattle Egret, Wilson's Plover, Black Tern, Little Blue Heron, American Oystercatcher, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Egret, American Bittern, and Black-necked Stilt. Photo credits on FAQ page.]
NestWatch, a citizen-science project of the Lab, is working to transcribe these data in hopes of better understanding the nesting patterns of North American birds. Valuable scientific questions can be asked and answered regarding the nesting behavior of birds over time by examining historical records. We hope to bring new discoveries to light using these previously hidden datasets.
The shorebirds collection consists of cards from North American shorebird species including, but not limited to; Eastern Wagtail, Black Tern, Double-crested Cormorant, Willet, American Oystercatcher, Black-necked Stilt, Herring Gull, American Bittern, Common Loon, Great Blue Heron, Cattle Egret, Wilson's Plover, Black Skimmer, Arctic Tern, Brant, Common Tern, Forster's Tern, Laughing Gull, Least Bittern, and more. Since the 1960s, many of these birds have seen population decline, with some species experiencing upwards of 90% decline over this period, which has placed many of these species on the conservation watch list. By transcribing these nest records, we hope to better understand the nesting habits and the some of the factors influencing these population declines.
The research potential of this information is invaluable. Join us in meeting our goal of transcribing all of these nest records to better understand and protect birds. With over 30+ years of data we hope to be able to identify some of the challenges that have been impacting the lives of nesting birds such as; predation, pollution, cowbird parasitism, human disturbance, weather, etc. Along the way we hope to learn more about the citizen scientists behind the cards and preserve the valuable data they spent hours collecting. For the love of birds and people, happy transcription!