Hawk Happenings Updates

We Have Less Than Two Weeks Left!

Things are happening at Hawk Happenings. The first nestling may leave the nest as early as next week! That means we don’t have much longer to collect data. As of yesterday, over 100 people have made over 1,600 observations. That’s incredible! Thank you to everyone who has participated Have you had the chance to collect data? If not,...

Collect New Data On Nestlings

Have you watched the Cornell Hawks cam recently? The nestlings are growing up so fast! Last week we launched data collection for the newly named Hawk Happenings investigation. 52 people have collected 305 observations! Today, we’ve switch the data collection buttons about brooding for ones about nestling activity. The nestlings are now old enough to maintain their body...

Start Collecting Data for the Hawk Investigation!

It’s time—we’re ready to start collecting data for Hawk Happenings, a new name for the current investigation using the Cornell Hawks cam. The name was inspired by the community-generated question we aim to answer: “What is the frequency of certain hawk behaviors, and does this frequency vary with the weather?” Start collecting data today. No prior experience is...

Questions in Hand, We Look At What’s Next

After weeks of discussions, 340 people ranked 5 proposed questions that are possible to investigate on the Cornell Hawks cam, using four criteria: interesting, specific, measurable, and feasible. Thank you to everyone who voted! The two questions that rose to the top are about incubation and hawk behaviors: We’ll plan to answer the first question about incubation...

Time to Vote! Which Question Would You Like to See Investigated?

We’ve brainstormed, we’ve refined, and now it’s time to vote on the question that you’d like to see the community investigate. We’ve narrowed it down to five questions based on four criteria that we discussed on the Question Design Board: Is the question interesting? Specific? Measurable? Feasible? A huge thank you to everyone who participated on...

Hawk Happenings Question Design

This section is currently inactive. We’ve finished refining questions. See the most recent project updates. Which Question to Investigate? We’re almost ready to start a new investigation! In the recent Sorting Activity, more than 90 people looked at 12 questions from the Wonder Board and sorted them into those that could or couldn’t be answered using the...

The Data Tools

When we watch the cams, we can come up with all kinds of questions once our curiosity is piqued. Taking note of interesting patterns is how scientific investigations start. Once we have questions in hand, the next step is to determine how feasible it would be to investigate them based on several criteria. For each question,...

New Hawk Investigation Launches

Big Red and Arthur are incubating three eggs on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Red-tailed Hawk cam and it's the perfect time to start a new investigation! As the hawks start their breeding season, join the Bird Cams Lab community to watch the cam, choose which question we should investigate, and make new discoveries about...

How to Choose or Refine a Good Cam-Testable Question

So you’ve identified some questions that you think could be answered with cam footage. How do you decide which ones make the best questions for an investigation? Will the answer provide interesting or valuable insights? Would investigating the question yield new insights about birds? How excited are you about investigating the question, compared with other questions? Is...

What Kinds of Questions Can We Investigate?

Watching the Bird Cams can generate all kinds of questions. Some questions may have answers already based on past research. Other questions may not have answers yet—but could be answered by collecting and analyzing data from the cams. It’s those questions we hope to identify for potential investigations. As you encounter questions, try categorizing each one: ...

How To Use Disqus

What is Disqus? Disqus is an easy-to-use discussion tool that you’ll use to comment or upvote other comments in any Bird Cams Lab forum. On the forums, you’ll be able to post questions, share your thoughts, and provide links to helpful information. In this guide, we’ll show you the simple steps for getting started. Do I need...

Video: A 3-minute Introduction to the Bird Cams Lab