Our Blog

  • Blog
    House Finch Eye Disease: Increased virulence as disease progresses

    Recent findings indicate that the pathogen that causes House Finch eye disease – Mycoplasma gallisepticum – is becoming stronger and more dangerous than earlier versions of the pathogen.

  • Blog
    Reasons why we should keep our seed dry

    Trichomonas gallinae, a harmful parasite to birds, may have the ability to survive outside of its host. New research, however, has found that we may not have to worry. Find out what you can do to protect your feeder birds by keeping seed dry.

  • Dark-eyed Junco and American Tree Sparrow by Shirley Donald.
    Blog
    Who is the toughest bird?

    You may have an intuition about which species is the toughest bird at your feeder and which species is the most peaceful. Now you have the data to find out, thanks to Project FeederWatch participants collecting behavioral observations for the past two winters. Read our blog to learn who is the toughest bird (Hint: it’s not doves!).

  • Blog
    Inspiring story of FeederWatch in a classroom

    At a time when technology inundates our lives, it can be difficult to connect with the natural world. Jennifer Ford, a teacher at Farnsworth Middle School in Guilderland, New York, has put FeederWatch to use in her classroom to do just that: connect students with nature and science in a very tangible way.

  • Blog
    10-year FeederWatch Lifetime Award

    Congratulations to Diane Cherbak of Mancos, Colorado! Diane has been involved with FeederWatch for ten years; however, she began bird-watching many year ago. Diane lives in the Piñyon-Juniper woodland, which is home to a wonderful diversity of birds including this Clark’s Nutcracker that she photographed.

  • Blog
    Eye disease in American Goldfinches

    FeederWatch collected data on eye disease in American Goldfinches for many years and then stopped because the prevalence of disease in goldfinches was minimal. Last season a number of FeederWatchers wrote to tell us they were seeing an increase in…

  • Blog
    The impacts of supplemental feeding on bird populations

    Highlights from a presentation by FeederWatch project leader, Emma Greig, at the North American Ornithological Conference 2016. She summarized research being conducted by her and by Cornell Lab Citizen Science director, David Bonter. Food is a major determinant of the…

  • Blog
    Interaction project end-of-season summary

    Thank you to Eliot Miller for this end-of-season summary about a new project investigating bird interactions at your feeders. And thank you to all FeederWatchers who sent in data! Read on to see how Eliot has put them to amazing…

  • Blog
    Tell us about bird behavior at your feeder

    What sorts of behaviors do you see? Dominance interactions are playing out at your bird feeder, in the woods, in the field, and anywhere birds occur! Researcher Eliot Miller from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology wants to know about them….