There's a new article up on the Biology site - Ornithology - Rise in Popularity of Ornithology

"Ornithology, the study of birds, continues rise in popularity amongst professional biologists and amateur "bird watchers" alike."

After you've read the article, come on back here to discuss it!

Thanks for an interesting article, Deborah!

I have been fascinated by birds all my life, and took Ornithology in my freshman year of college. That course turned me into an avid birder and I'm still at it, 60 years later!

I appreciate that birders like me, and even casual backyard birdwatchers, can contribute to the body of scientific knowledge by submitting their birding lists to e-bird, which is run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and participating in the Audubon Society's Christmas and May Bird Counts.

The Christmas Bird Count was begun over 100 years ago as an alternative to the then-popular Christmas hunt, where hunters competed to see how many birds they could kill in one day. Now we count the birds and they live to fly another day, and our lists go into the database that is used by scientists to track changes in bird populations over time.

I think it's wonderful that avid birders such as yourself can make such a huge contribution to the study of ornithology!