Birds Resources

Avian Science Center at the University of Montana: The mission of the Avian Science Center is to promote ecological awareness and informed decision making through the collection, synthesis, and dissemination of science-based information on western birds. The Center provides numerous outdoor workshops and educational events in Montana in the warm seasons.

All About Birds from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Includes a Bird Guide to identify birds, learn about their life history, listen to the sounds, and watch bird behavior on video. Very comprehensive.

The Internet Bird Collection: The Internet Bird Collection (IBC) is a non-profit endeavor with the ultimate goal of disseminating knowledge about the world’s avifauna. It is an on-line audiovisual library of the world’s birds that is available to the general public free of charge. While the initial aim is to post at least one video or photo per species, the long-term objective is to eventually include material showing a variety of biological aspects (e.g. feeding, breeding, etc.) for every species.

Education from the National Audubon Society: Includes a wide variety of information for kids, educators, and families.

Table of the Orders and Families of Passerine Birds at earthlife.net: Detailed classification info for passerines.

Table of the Orders and Families of Non-Passerine Birds at earthlife.net: Detailed classification info for non-passerines.

Flight Lab at the University of Montana: Info on avian science research from the University of Montana.

The Wonder of Bird Feathers from Earthlife.net: Contains detailed info about bird feathers.

Bird Sounds from Earthlife.net: Extensive information about the science behind bird sounds.

Vocal Communication from Eastern Kentucky University: Numerous examples and extensive discussion of bird vocal communication. (Note: This page contains lots of embedded YouTube videos which may not play if YouTube is blocked from your computer.)

Enature.com Field Guide to Birds: Another broad field guide to birds, including some examples of bird vocalizations and songs.

Avian Reproduction: Anatomy & the Bird Egg from Eastern Kentucky University: This is an outstanding, comprehensive website for a deeper dive into reproduction in birds.

“Nests and eggs that may show up in bluebird nestboxes” from Sialis: This is a great site for looking at eggs and nestbox inhabitants. It is an east coast website, but many of the birds can be found in Montana and the west as well.

North American Bird Egg Set from Bone Clones: This page shows a set of eggs from a variety of North American birds, along with a key. To view a larger version of the egg set, click here.

These are some great websites with dynamic links to migrating bird activity:

• Bird Migration from birdnature.com
• Migratory Bird Center from the Smithsonian
• Numerous Bird Migration pages from CloseToNature.com
• Educational Resources on Bird Migration from Wild Birds Unlimited
• Bird Migration from Paul and Bernice Noll’s Window on the World
• Waterfowl Migration Map from Ducks Unlimited
• Migration Reports from HawkWatch International
• HawkWatch International Raptor Migration Sites

For more on the evolution of birds and Archaeopteryx, refer to the following websites:

• Archaeopteryx: An Early Bird from the University of California Museum of Paleontology
• “Earliest Bird Had Feet Like Dinosaur, Fossil Shows” from National Geographic

There are amazing resources available for figuring out the identity of an unknown bird:

• Cornell Lab of Ornithology Birds Page
• All About Birds from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• All About Birds from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Search Page
• The Bird Identification Visual Key from the Idaho Museum of Natural History
• Montana Field Guides from FWP: Class Aves
• Montana Bird Watching from birding.com
• Bird Identification from Birding.com

How to Attract Birds to Your Yard: From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a brief introduction to some techniques used to attract birds to your local environment.

There are some great websites that provide plans for building bird boxes for specific birds:

• “Bird Boxes: Hints For Attracting Birds With Nesting Boxes” from the Audubon Society
• “Building Nest Structures, Feeders, and Photo Blinds for North Dakota Wildlife”. This site includes a typical plan for a nest box designed for black-capped chickadees and white-breasted nuthatches (on page 7 of the larger document).
  Alternatively, you can view Instructions for Downloading this material, or click here to download a pdf.
• “Build Nest Boxes for Wild Birds” from The Wildlife Garden and the Oregon State University Extension Service (pdf)
• For a more specific nesting box, refer to “Wood Duck Nest Boxes” from the USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center.

Zoom Birds page from Enchanted Learning: Contains many examples of “bird extremes.”

Eggs & Nest by Rosamond Purcell, Linnea S. Hall,  and René Corado: An excellent reference book on nesting.

The following gadgets can help to identify bird sounds: BirdSong IdentiFlyer, BirdSong IdentiFlyer Ultimate Kit.

 

Video Resources

Red-capped Mannikin mating “moonwalking” (YouTube)

Lyrebird – unbelievable vocalizations (YouTube)

These are all from National Geographic and they ALL start with commercials:

• Osprey fishing
• Golden Eagle hunting
• Spotted Owl
• Peacocks
• Peregrine Falcon flight
• American Dipper underwater flight
• Hummingbird flight
• Crows and Ravens

Here are some great videos of nesting and nest-building birds (all are from YouTube):

• Bald Eagle Nest Building
• It’s Hard Work Building a Nest (Bald Eagles)
• Hummingbird Nest Documentary (Hummingbirds hatching, developing and flying away over a 40 day period)
• Mother Hummingbird Building Nest
• Raven’s Nest with 6 Eggs

Videos of migrating snow geese at Freezeout Lake:

• Freezeout Lake, Montana (YouTube)
• Snow Geese Migration at Freezeout Lake (Mefeedia)
• Freezeout Lake 2009 (Vimeo)