birdsoup

Cornell Lab of Ornithology is making great strides in marrying the simple pleasures of birding with the wonders of technology.  Average birders (Cornell calls them” citizen scientists”) submit millions of reports on bird sightings across the county.  Cornell has manipulated these data and developed real time Occurrence Maps that let you observe bird migration without leaving your computer.  And you can see an entire year of migration, week by week, in less than 2 minutes.

Check the link below and observe the yearly migration of the White-throated Sparrow.  You will notice how they blanket the east in winter but my mid-summer can’t be found in the US.  Note it is helpful to click on the Larger Map.

http://ebird.org/content/ebird/about/occurrence-maps/white-throated-sparrow