Latest Posts
Get to know your Bird Cams Lab mates
Since we started Bird Cams Lab back in 2018, we’ve grown to over 4,000 members! We’re thrilled the community has blossomed and that there are so many people passionate not only about the Bird Cams but about learning more about the birds on cam. With the community still growing, we thought it’d be nice to step...
October 22, 2020
Discuss New Findings At Live Webinar
We had over 140 people weigh in to let us know when the best date and time would be to meet for our upcoming live event: Hawk Happenings: A Look Into The Cornell Hawks' Nest. Based on the responses, we’ll be meeting October 21 4:00–5:00 P.M. ET. Register today and save the information on your calendar. Register...
October 16, 2020
Nestlings snack all day on the prey delivered in the morning or afternoon
Last week we released the first set of visualizations that looked at participants’ sampling effort and the first behavior we studied: vocalizations. This week we dive into the other intriguing and fun-to-watch behaviors: feedings, prey deliveries, and three nestling-specific ones (flapping, walking, and mantling). To kick off this second week of data exploration, we feature two...
October 13, 2020
Explore the Hawk Happenings Data
The time has come! Join us in the next phase of Hawk Happenings: data exploration. We’ve completed the first three phases (observe, question, and collect data), and it’s now time to look at data visualizations. Regardless of your involvement with Hawk Happenings so far, we invite you to explore the data, ask questions, and share...
October 2, 2020
When were (or weren’t) we watching?
In the midst of the pandemic this past summer, the community came together and connected with nature by collecting data on the Cornell Lab’s Red-tailed Hawk cam. From May to June, over 320 people collected data to better understand the frequency of certain hawk behaviors and how the frequency might vary with weather. We were excited...
October 2, 2020
Community inspires deeper dive into the data
The Panama Live community inspired us to dig deeper into the data and create a new set of visualizations! During last week’s live webinar, Panama Live: Uncovering The Lives Of Six Tropical Feeder Birds (watch it here if you missed the live event), attendees wanted to learn more about how we collected data, including what...
September 22, 2020
Hawk Happenings: From Observations to Visualizations
Although the Red-tailed Hawks are one of the most common hawks and are found acrossNorth America, researchers have only been able to study their behaviors at the nest from afar or infrequently via quick nest checks. The Cornell Lab’s Red-tailed Hawk cam provides a unique opportunity for viewers to watch these birds up close and make new discoveries....
September 20, 2020
What does the weather data look like?
Weather is important to understand when studying birds because it can potentially affect how they behave. The Hawk Happenings community recognized this and specifically included weather in their research question, theorizing that Red-tailed Hawk behaviors at the nest might vary with changes in the weather. After data collection ended in June, we reached out to the...
September 18, 2020
Live from Bird Cams Lab: Virtual Event Uncovers the Lives of Tropical Feeder Birds
Over 100 people tuned in to join the Bird Cams staff on September 10th in a free virtual event, “Panama Live: Uncovering The Lives Of Tropical Feeder Birds.” In the course of an hour, we watched video clips of six species that visit the Panama Fruit Feeder cam, learned about their natural history, shared new...
September 16, 2020
Hawk Happenings: About the Nest
Hawk Happenings is the second Bird Cams Lab investigation to collect data about the Red-tailed Hawks featured on the Cornell Hawks cam (the first was Hawk Talk). From May to June 2020, participants used a data tagging tool to record hawk behavior live while watching the cam. The Cornell Hawks cam follows a pair of Red-tailed...
September 8, 2020