A Sad but Important Record

Unfortunately, in the world of bird-watching, not all sightings bring joy.

To those of us who love and watch birds, seeing a dead one elicits great sadness. While it might be something we would rather forget, recording bird deaths generates important data that helps other birds.

Many bird-watchers use eBird to track their sightings of living birds. On the other hand, dBird.org helps collect data on where dead birds are found.

An online tool from the Audubon Society, dBird.org collects information that can be used to mitigate bird mortality, especially deaths related to collisions with windows.

Although seeing a dead bird produces a sense of loss and powerlessness, reporting the sighting to dBird.org can be a powerful way of helping other birds.

Free Bird

This birding app goes cheap, cheap!

The various digital birding apps available provide great resources for both professional birders and people who are simply trying to figure out what bird they just saw. With its latest app, known as Merlin, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has the latter group in mind.

Merlin is a free app. Drawing from the eBird database, it guides people through the identification process and makes suggestions based on factors like size and when and where the bird was seen. Watch the video below to get an idea of how it works:



Merlin doesn't include all the bird species in North America, and it is only available through Apple's App Store for now, but an Android version is coming, and Merlin looks like a great, free option for those who are getting started with bird identification. For more information, click here.

With Merlin, the next time you hear a cheep, you've got a no-cost, handy way of figuring out what made it.

Seek and Report

Fulfillment is doing what you love and having it make a contribution to the world.

For bird-watchers, doing what they love is pretty easy because birds usually aren't too far away. However, technology is even making it easier to find birds, and that same technology is providing birders with a chance to add to science by reporting their sightings.

BirdsEye is a bird-watching app for Android, iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. It is the work of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and is dedicated to providing birders with resources that help them do what they love. Through the lab's eBird program, which collects information about bird sightings around the world, BirdsEye allows bird-watchers to find places where birds are congregating. Birders who want to share their sightings can purchase the BirdsEye companion app, BirdLog.

For more information on these apps click here and discover the potential of using and contributing to the science of bird-watching.

Bird of the World

Many birds are international, pretty much disregarding countries' borders, so it makes sense for bird-counting efforts to harness the power of the global community.

This year, the Great Backyard Bird Count and eBird are teaming up to do just that. As this announcement from the GBBC states, the count, which runs February 15-18, will contribute to the overall, worldwide findings for 2013.

Anyone can participate, and it's exciting that this year's event will connect the whole world. For more information, click here. Then, go out and make every bird count.

Fledgling Birders

Nature or nurture? When it comes to our connection to nature, nurture helps.

I've probably always had an interest in birds. My family has recordings of my dad reading field guides to me when I was about four.

Still, bird-watching is something I've only recently taken up. In fact, I didn't really start to figure out just how much someone could do with bird-watching until a few years ago. Before then, I simply had not been made aware of that world. As I grew up, my family gave me plenty of chances to connect with nature. However, beyond our bird books, we didn't have a lot of access to bird-watching information.

That's why I think the latest offering from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is such a great thing. As explained in a blog post on Round Robin, the lab is working with the Black Swamp Bird Observatory to connect aspiring bird-watchers through the Young Birders Network.

The network gives students in high school a chance to start or join bird-watching clubs, share bird sightings, and learn about college and career opportunities related to birds. This is the kind of thing that gives wings to childhood interests.

For more information, visit the Young Birder Network on eBird.

Look What We Found

Technology certainly creates some challenges for the environment. It often leads to new machines and devices that use up and level nature, and spending too much time with technology can keep us from connecting with the natural world.

However, technology can also benefit the environment. In the past, I have blogged about using smart phones and Web sites to connect with and help nature.

Now, TreeHugger reports a very cool story involving technology and the environment. To summarize, a picture on Flickr led to the discovery of a new species of insect. That's really awesome.

TreeHugger talks about how the story shows the increasing value of technology in things like citizen science. (Another example is the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's eBird project making its 100 millionth observation.) I think the insect story also provides proof of the power of people connecting around environmental topics. That connection can be aided by technology.

This App's for the Birds

Birders who just can't wait to share their sightings now have a new app that allows them to make reports on the spot.

BirdLog, designed for both iPhone and Android, brings the citizen science of bird-watching into real time, or if your phone is not getting a reception, the app lets you store the information about your avian discoveries until you can send it.

Information sent through BirdLog goes to the Cornell Lab or Ornithology's eBird program. For more information about the app, click here.