Birds of the World

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Comprehensive life histories for all bird species and families
Black-necked Stilt
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News and Webinars

High Trend Resolution studies from 2007-2021 reveal North American bird populations are declining most severely in areas where they should be thriving.

New study finds where birds are declining most; some locales with positive trends

May 1, 2025

“This is the first time we’ve had fine-scale information on population changes across such broad spatial extents and across entire ranges of species. And that provides us a better lens to understand the changes that are happening with bird populations,” said Amanda Rodewald, faculty director of the Center for Avian Population Studies at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

The tree of all birds, showing representatives from different families. Branches are colored by how many published studies contributed information to that relationship – brightest green is 10 or more, gray is 0. Species without phylogenetic information (~15%) were placed using curated taxonomic information. (Image created by Emily Jane McTavish, silhouettes from PhyloPic.org)

For the First Time, All Avian Evolutionary Relationships Revealed

May 1, 2025

Colleagues at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology alongside Professor Emily Jane McTavish at the University of California, Merced have mapped the evolution of every known bird species.The resulting database can easily be shared and updated as additional studies are published. The researchers detailed how they created this novel evolutionary map in a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Science (PNAS).

BOW Discovery Webinars Kite

BOW Discovery Webinars - season three recap

April 4, 2025

We recently wrapped up season three of the BOW Discovery Webinars. Thanks to all our distinguished speakers as well as the staff here at the Cornell Lab who makes them possible.

About Birds of the World

Birds of the World is a powerful resource that brings deep, scholarly content from four celebrated works of ornithology into a single platform where biologists and birders can find comprehensive life history information on birds. Every bird has a story. Discover them all with Birds of the World.

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