urbanbirds@cornell.edu
Celebrate Urban Birds News
September/October 2008
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Bird Girl is back!
Check out her new video:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/celebration/temporary/little-green-places-photo-video-contest
Don't forget to enter our Little Green
Places photo/video/art contest
See some of the contest entries at:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/celebration/temporary/little-green-places-for-birds
Join in the fun! Send us your photos, videos,
and artwork before October 31. It's great time to be outside. Email your photo,
drawing, or video of a Little Green Space that's good for birds to. It could be
an ivy-covered wall, flowers next to the stoop, a window box, a potted plant, a
container garden on a rooftop or balcony, your school garden-any place birds
like because it provides shelter, food, or water.
We have great prizes, including a $100 gift certificate from Johnny's Selected
Seeds, "bird and butterfly attractor station" from Ion Exchange Native Seed and
Plant Nursery, subscriptions to Mother Earth News, plus great books,
sound recordings, and more.
Information about the Little Green Places contest can be found on our web site.
The first fifty entries will receive our Little
Green Places for Birds poster.
Email your entry to
urbanbirds@cornell.edu. In order to receive your
poster and enter the contest you must:
- Write "Little Green Places Contest" in the
subject line.
- Include your name and mailing address in the
email.
- Tell us where your Little Green Place is.
- Tell us why it's a good Little Green Place for
birds.
- Send us your entry before October 31, 2008.
We really want to encourage kids to take part in the
contest! Parents, this is a great excuse to get your kids outside!!
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Changing the face of conservation
“I’ve never met a black bird watcher before!”
Biologist, author, and birder John C. Robinson says he’s heard that a lot over
the years. It got him wondering why there were so few minorities involved with
birding. It’s a topic he explores in his new book Birding for Everyone,
Encouraging People of Color to Become Birdwatchers. Watch our video to learn
more about how Robinson got hooked on science and bird watching. View video
here:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/celebration/temporary/changing-the-face-of-conservation-1
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Birds crashing into your windows?
More birds are killed from hitting windows than any other single direct
cause of death each year. Windows kill at least 100 million and as many as one
billion birds in the United States annually, and the problem is growing. How can
you make your windows safer? Learn what you can do to help birds avoid
collisions or minimize the risk of being hurt. Visit:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/Publications/Birdscope/Summer2008/window_screening.html
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Celebrating Little Green Places
We created a new poster about the "Little Green Places" you can plant for
birds. One side shows a cityscape in miniature, illustrating lots of the little
green places that support and attract birds. If you look carefully you'll find
illustrations of Celebrate Urban Birds participants and Cornell Lab of
Ornithology staff.
To create the poster, Susan Spear, our graphic designer, took pictures of
people, plants, and landscapes and converted them into graphics for the poster.
The back of the poster lists bird-friendly plants you can put in containers next
to your stoop or on your balcony, and gives you ideas for creative uses for
these plants. (Pound flowers, make flower-petal beads, or make echinacea tea!).
To order the Celebrate Little Green Places for Birds poster for $2.50 please
send a check to Celebrate Urban Birds/Little Green Places Poster, 159 Sapsucker
Woods Road, Ithaca, NY 14850 or download it for free as a
PDF
from the Celebrate Urban Birds web site.
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Crows Never Forget
Ever wonder about avian (bird) intelligence? Different birds are smart in
different ways. Some birds are really good at recognizing danger or food
sources, and remembering them. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's resident crow
expert, Kevin McGowan is quoted in this New York Times article entitled
Friend
or Foe? Crows Never Forget a Face, It Seems
Crows remember him and either follow him because they remember he gave them food
or protest his presence with alarm calls because they remember he climbed their
tree and looked into their nest; maybe even measured and recorded other
information about their nestlings.
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Share your experience
A celebration of urban birds, places, people, and communities
Please tell us your Celebrate Urban Birds story. Send in your photos,
video ,and story of your Celebrate Urban Birds event-past or present, large or
small, group or individual. We want to celebrate you and acknowledge your
efforts to reconnect with nature by posting your story on our website. Seeing
your story may inspire others to join the celebration and enrich their lives by
embracing and learning about their urban birds. Come on! Share your experience!
Send your photos, video clips, and story by email to:
urbanbirds@cornell.edu or by mail to:
Celebrate Urban Birds, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, NY 14850
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Barred Owls in the city
Researchers at the
Carolina Raptor Center
and University of North Carolina have been
monitoring the Barred Owl population in and around downtown Charlotte, North
Carolina. Barred Owls need miles of uninterrupted forest habitat to breed, but
Rob Bierregaard has found that Barred Owls are doing lots of successful living,
eating, and breeding right in the city.
Life is not all easy, though, especially in the newer suburbs, where the owls
can't find big trees with nesting cavities. Also, predator birds focus on their
prey so intently when they are hunting that they ignore anything in peripheral
vision, so lots of owls get hit by cars just before
they get their mouse. Visit the
Ecology of Barred Owls in the North Carolina Piedmont web
site to learn more and view lots of neat
pictures of owls nesting, baby owls, owls with radio collars, and more.
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Pigeon scrapbook
Get some inspiration from Susan Kerslake from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
She created a beautiful scrapbook inspired by the arrival of a pigeon egg. Page
through her wonderful scrapbook and then begin your own! See the scrapbook here:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/celebration/resources-for-celebrating/exploring-the-arts/pigeon-scrapbook-by-susan-kerslake
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City birds change their tune
Did you know that city noise pollution is changing the way songbirds sing?
In an article by Ed Yong in the March 29, 2008 edition of New Scientist
(Vol. 197, Issue 2649 ) titled: "City songbirds change their tune," the author
explores how noise pollution is changing the way urban birds sing and how it
seems to be driving evolution.
Loud noises in cities can drown out alarm calls, courtship
songs, and even the sound of predators approaching. To survive in cities, some
birds are adapting by singing at night, singing louder, and even by avoiding low
notes (urban noise is especially loud at low frequencies). It seems that some
species of birds may even split into genetically distinct urban and rural
subspecies!
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Wind power and birds
You may have heard that wind power generators can affect or kill birds.
Migrating birds often follow strong wind paths into the same areas that are good
for wind-power generation, because of the steady predictable wind currents. Bats
are affected by wind turbines and wind mills, too. Research may help prevent
collisions. Heights of towers, hours of operation, protective lights or sounds
might all be factors. We recently discovered an interesting web site that may be
a good source of reference information, from the
National Wind Coordinating
Collaborative.
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We need your help to keep going!
We provide the Celebrate Urban Birds kits for free to community
organizations working with underrepresented audiences. We need your help to
continue. Every donation counts. Please help us meet our goal to give away
150,000 kits by June 30, 2009!
Eighty percent of the organizations we work with are reaching underrepresented
audiences and people who are new to birds. For every kit we give to someone who
has not had the opportunity to connect with nature, we get a bit closer to
creating a world that cares about conserving and interacting with nature. It's
good for kids, it's good for families, it's good for seniors, it's good for
birds! We promote healthier neighborhoods, habitat improvement for birds, kids
getting outdoors, and connection with nature.
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/celebration/donate
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Join Celebrate Urban Birds on Facebook
Join our Facebook group so you can easily share photos, events, and ideas.
Help us make it a great success!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5487246308
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Please feel free to forward this message to anyone you think would be
interested. Anyone can sign up to receive updates by registering for Celebrate
Urban Birds! or by sending us an email at
urbanbirds@cornell.edu. If you don't want to
receive e-mails like this one please let us know by emailing
urbanbirds@cornell.edu
and we'll be happy to remove you from our list.
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