Get Involved with Celebrate Urban Birds


Are you interested in contributing to bird research but don't have a lot of time?  Celebrate Urban Birds (CUBs) is another citizen science project administered by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.  As explained by Dr. Caren Cooper in this presentation, the citizen science component of CUBs is intended to address gaps in ecological research, nature conservation, and community building and provide informal education to the public (CUBs 2014).  Public participation helps researchers identify the value of green spaces to birds.  It connects people with nature to increase their level of concern for it.  Engaging the public promotes science literacy and invokes a sense of stewardship to build strong, healthy communities and connections within them (CUBs 2014).  From a research perspective, CUBs is used to help ornithologists learn more about bird species and their habitats (Nugent 2019).

Participating in CUBs is simple.  The first step is create a Cornell Lab account.  The Cornell Institute of Ornithology then provides a list of focal and regional species for your location.  After familiarizing yourself with the birds - start observing!  The CUBs study requires that observation area is 50 feet by 50 feet.  If you're unsure how to measure the space, I suggest using Google Earth Pro.  It's free to download and has measuring tools to help you delineate your area.  Here's an example of a section I measured in my backyard:



Visualizing the observation area is an important step because the study relies on consistency.  The same 50 ft. x 50 ft. section must be used for each observation.  Timing is also important; each viewing must occur at the same time of day.  If it's starting to sound too involved, don't fret - the observation periods are only ten minutes!  Plus, you only need to do three separate observations for a formal submission to CUBs.  It's preferable to complete the observations in a single week, but they can be completed over the course of a 30 day period if needed.

Below are examples of the focal species you'll want to familiarize yourself with before you get started.  You'll also want to enter your location for a list of regional species.

U.S. Main Focal Species


Illinois Regional Species



Now for the love of birds, get out there and start observing!


Resources
  1. Celebrate Urban Birds (CUBs) and Stem Learning - Caren Cooper. (2014). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzOTdlks-R0 
  2. Nugent, J. (2019). Celebrate Urban Birds with citizen science. Science Scope, 43(1), 14–16. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/openview/3de0e86a0961a33177f0283556f6fcd4/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=36017

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