Cornell Lab reports that more than 200,000 people contribute to its citizen-science projects each year. Scientists use these data to determine how birds are affected by habitat loss, pollution and disease. They trace bird migration and document long-term changes in bird numbers across the continent. The results have been used to create management guidelines for birds, investigate the effects of acid rain and climate change, and advocate for the protection of declining species.



eBird is an on-line checklist project where you can enter and store your bird observations in a central database, track your personal records, and share your observations with other birders and scientists. Cornell also provides graphing, mapping and analysis tools to better understand patterns of bird occurrence and the environmental and human factors that influence them. This real-time data resource produces millions of observations per year.



Launched in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, eBird documents the presence or absence of species, as well as bird abundance through checklist data.



A TalkingScience Citizen Science Buzz blog post from March 23, 2011, provides more insight into the eBird project.