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Photo © Keith Williams
Photo © Kshanti Greene

Our Focus for 2023

This year, we would like to highlight the conservation needs of a group of birds called “aerial insectivores.” What’s an aerial insectivore? Glad you asked. These are birds that consume insects on the wing—think swallows, swifts, martins, nightjars, and flycatchers (to name a few). This guild of birds has exhibited long-term population declines, so throughout the year we will highlight them and suggest small ways that you can help reverse the declines.

Our suggested activity for January is to help transcribe historical nest record cards for Tree Swallows (one of our biggest historical projects to date). While many of us in northern North America eagerly await the swallows’ return this spring, transcribing old data helps prepare us for migration and nesting season while also ushering these historic data into the NestWatch database! Keep an eye out for more content on ways you can contribute as the seasons change.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Cornell Lab of Ornithology