The Louisville Cardinals may have lost early to the Montana State University Eagles in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen, but that is no indicator of the Northern Cardinal’s performance in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s “March Migration Madness.” The #2 seeded Northern Cardinal flew all the way into the Feathered Four.

As part of an outreach project, the Lab set up its own March Madness by seeding the top 12 most-visited bird species on their All About Birds online guide, rounding out the Tweet Sixteen with four staff-chosen wild cards. The tournament had its fair share of upsets with the wild card Cedar Waxwing knocking out the #1 seeded favorite Red-Tailed Hawk in the very first round. 

The Lab hoped the tournament would get people interested in birds and conservation. Run through the Lab’s Facebook fan page, the tournament matched-up birds in a bracket. Fans could participate by “liking” the bird of their choice using the provided photo and information along with their own personal experience with the birds. Whichever bird received the most “likes” moved on into the next round. Both trash-talking and campaigning abounded and the tournament drew as many as 3,000 votes per day.

Miyoko Chu, Director of Communications, said that the Lab works to garner excitement about birds. “We don’t just want to preach to the choir; we want to reach and inspire people who might even just be curious about birds and get them excited about learning more and caring about the environment.”

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, located in Sapsucker Woods northeast of the main campus, is pursuing many projects ranging from research to outreach to education. “There’s an enormous amount going on,” said Hugh Powell, the communication department’s science editor.

Chu emphasized that the Lab has it’s own unique style of data collection. “The Lab does much more than research. We are different from a typical academic department. We do everything along the spectrum of gathering data, but it also involves engaging 200,000 citizen science participants around the world.”

    As far as professional research and data collection, one ongoing project involves the development of bio-acoustic technology. Bio-acoustic research records sounds of elusive and endangered species, then uses those recordings to estimate species’ population as well as monitor their health.

    The bio-acoustic technology is used in a variety of ways including the observation of the night sky. Chu explained that most song birds do not migrate like geese – during the day and in a conspicuous V formation. The bio-acoustic sound data collected at night is used to determine which species are migrating when and where, which can be utilized in the creation of conservation policy. The information plays a role in environmental planning such as the construction of wind turbines which would effect local bird populations.

The Lab uses its bio-acoustic technology beyond the bird world, contributing to marine acoustic research as well as terrestrial studies with stations all over the world. At its marine stations, one concentration is understanding the effect of noise pollution on whales.  Chu explained that noises from activities like oil drilling and shipping drown out whale-to-whale communication hindering different aspects of their livelihood such as mating.

On land, the bio-acoustic developments are being used  for numerous applications such as studies on forest elephants in Western Africa. Forest elephants can actually be very difficult to find, explained Chu, and bio-acoustic equipment is used to listen for the elephants’ locations, estimate their population, as well as monitor poaching activity.

Research at the Lab also extends beyond field work. The Lab’s communications team is working on an online tool which uses machine learning, a developing field in artificial intelligence that utilizes algorithms to teach computers to learn, reason, and make decisions based on previous information. The tool will assist people in identifying birds based on both new information and what the computer has already seen. “It will tell you what you saw and it will also store that information for the next interaction,” explained Chu. The hope is to eventually expand the technology to mobile devices beyond the internet.

Citizens from around the world also participate in research. Through programs like Project FeederWatch, NestWatch and Celebrate Urban Birds, anyone can contribute to the extensive data collection. For example, Project FeederWatch, encourages interested bird-enthusiasts in the US and Canada to collect information about the birds that eat at their feeders between November and April. The project has collected a vast amount of data in its 20+ years about species’ eating and migration patterns.

The Lab is all-atwitter with research, citizen-involvement and education. The Lab is working to entice nature-lovers and inspire interest in birds and conservation. “It gives you a reason to watch your feeders,” said Chu, “You start to notice more things that pique your curiosity.”