Bird-Study

How much does Bird-Study (including Birding, aka "Bird Watching" before 1969) contribute to science? A lot.  For example, did the above ten-hour cruise (see the GPS track log map above, and the group portrait of part of the team below) across the Gulf of Maine on October 12, 2014 contribute to science?  For sure, including mapping the locations of four Skuas on that trip, plus many others.  Do birders contribute to science, with every eBird report, every Christmas Bird Count, every Summer Bird Count, every Atlas block, every bird banded, etc. Yes indeed (scientists and "citizen scientists" are mining these databases of these projects more and more, to learn more about the birds and the ecosystems they are part of, as seen on several presentations here), and this conference will touch on many different kinds of science being done with birds, by birders and by professional ornithologists. Thank you all, for your substantial contributions to science!  

This was also the theme of a talk given later on November 23, 2021:   Birds, Data and Science  

We hope you enjoy this November 6, 2021 conference, with its many brief reports,  and that you will followup to learn more about the projects which interest you most.  Scroll down this one long page (actually several long pages) to see a summary of each of the very brief project presentations given on November 6.   

Here is a photo of part of the team of birders and scientists that hunted for skuas, seabirds and whales,  and contributed to science at the same time, over a five-year period on that long 210-mile route across the Gulf of Maine (adding our bird data along the GNATS transect, which includes oceanographic data which goes back to 1912 and Henry Bigelow's observations!).  Thanks to eBird and other structured bird counts, birders are increasingly contributing their field data to science, for later analysis and discoveries of relationships and patterns, such as multi-decade trends in populations and geographic distribution changes. And in many cases, birds are a good indicator-species, canaries-in-the-mine, giving us a visible window into complex and changing ecosystems which impact them and us humans.