Welcome to Cornell Feeders Live!


Cornell FeederWatch Cam
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Welcome

This Bird Cams Lab investigation is centered on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Cornell FeederWatch cam. Watch the cam and see the resources below to get started.

Get started

Video: Introducing the Bird Cams Lab
About Bird Cams Lab
How to Join and Use the Forum
The Data Collection Tool
What’s a Testable Question?
Using The Tagging Tool

Stay up-to-date by following Bird Cams Lab on Twitter

Calendar

Week of February 15
Brainstorm and discuss on the Wonder Board
Week of February 23
Live webinar and Question Design Board
Week of March 8
Vote on what data to collect
Week of March 29
Collect data
Week of April 19
Organize data
Week of June 2
Explore data
Week of June 16
Live webinar
Week of July 5
Review and edit final report
Week of July 26
Publish Final Report

Project Feedback

Please share your feedback about your experience. Help us understand what you’ve liked about it and how we can make improvements. Thank you!



A screenshot of the Cornell FeederWatch cam with light snow. There are many species, including downy woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, male northern cardinal, and several sparrows on the platform.

In this investigation we studied the birds on the Cornell FeederWatch cam, located in the Treman Bird Feeder Garden at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Sitting just on the edge of both Sapsucker Woods and its 10-acre pond, these feeders attract forest species like chickadees and woodpeckers as well as some species that prefer open environments near water like Red-winged Blackbirds.

After weeks of discussion and voting, the community of Bird Cams Lab participants and scientists settled on two questions to answer: (1) What is the daily visitation pattern of different species at the feeders? (2) How does weather affect the probability of different species visiting the feeders?

With questions in hand, they tagged data in real time on the Cornell FeederWatch cam for eight bird species: Northern Cardinal, Black-capped Chickadee, Red-bellied Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, Tufted Titmouse, Blue Jay, American Goldfinch, and Red-winged Blackbird from March 31–April 14, 2021. The scientists pulled precipitation (ex: rain) and temperature data from the nearest weather station to answer the second question, and created a series of visualizations for the community to explore together. They found that species differed in their visitation patterns by date and time of day, but not temperature. You can read about what the community did and what they discovered in the investigation’s Final Report.

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