Whether you’re a beginning backyard birder or you have some real experience in the field, the library wants to introduce you to our latest online offering, Birds of the World from Cornell Labs. This will be really exciting for you if, like me, you’ve gotten just a little geeky about birds as you’ve grown older, and maybe you even have Cornell Lab’s bird song identifier on your phone. (Let’s face it, there are times when you’re walking in the woods and you just have to know who’s singing!)  Anyway, no matter who you are, you’ll find lots – I mean Lots – of amazing information here. 

For example, a quick search filtering for “North America” and “Middlesex County, MA” will give you pages of beautifully drawn, color pictures of every bird it is possible to see in our neck of the woods. Click on any species and you’ll get an abundance of information. Here’s my favorite – a page full of owls of the Northeast: (Did you know Barn owls are a different family from the rest of them?!) 

And this is just the tip of the information iceberg! You’ll find individual “accounts” for each bird, news from the birding community, webinars, and more! Head over to the Research and Learning Resources page on our website to dig around for yourself.

If Birds of the World inspires you to get outside and explore birds in real life, don’t forget that we have several pairs of binoculars, including ones that work for kids, that you can check out from our Library of Things. And don’t leave home without the pocket bird guide to help you identify your feathered friends while you’re on the go.

One other bird-related event coming up on August 5 from 2-3 pm. Sign up now to get your Zoom link for the Smithsonian author talk, The Bird Book: The Stories, Science, and History of Birds with Dr. Jay Jinsing Falk, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the University of Colorado. The book and presentation explore both the natural history of birds and the deep cultural connections we have with them.