Web Resources for Ornithologists

The following are a list of web sites of special interest to ornithologists. If you would like to suggest additions to this list, please contact the AOU Web Editor ().

Information Hubs

• Ornithology Exchange An online community for ornithologists featuring discussion forums, articles, news, announcements, a comprehensive jobs board, blogs, and more.
• BIRDNET Developed and maintained by the Ornithological Council, a joint effort of over 10 ornithological societies. Provides access to documents produced by the Ornithological Council (Issue Briefs, Reports to the member societies, news about ornithological issues, and other materials), and links to the web sites of member societies and to a range of other resources of value to ornithologists.
• Global Raptor Information Network (GRIN) A website maintained by The Peregrine Fund to provide detailed information on diurnal birds of prey and to facilitate communication between raptor researchers of the world. GRIN features include a comprehensive database on the distribution and population status of diurnal raptors, handbook-style species accounts, a large searchable bibliography, homepages for raptor researchers, a "Recent Raptor News" section, and links to numerous other related websites.

Other Resources

Banding

• Bird Banding Laboratory This site provides information on bird banding, permit application, some results of banding, and links to resources for banders, including supplies and training materials. The site is linked to the Canadian Banding Office.

Careers

• Job/career tips Presentations from a 2007 Workshop, with additional links

Collections

• Museum specimen database
• Working with Birds Downloadable manual on how to prepare avian study skins, DNA vouchers, and collect internal anatomy data
• Useful collection-related papers
• Supplies

Conservation

• Conservation alerts and reports from the American Bird Conservancy
• Tropical bird conservation: Newsletter and contacts

Funding

• Grants, Awards, and Prizes in Ornithology This page on BIRDNET provides links to a wide range of sites, mostly of interest to students.

Links to Links

• Ornithology Links Database of links related to ornithology, from the Ornithology Exchange
• Bird Links to the World Provides links to a variety of sites dealing with birds, birding and ornithology.

Literature

• Searchable Ornithological Research Archive (SORA) An open access electronic journal archive providing access to an extensive collection of ornithological literature.
• Ornithological Worldwide Literature (OWL) A compilation of citations and abstracts from the worldwide scientific literature that pertain to the science of ornithology, including the 'grey' literature, which are not abstracted by commercial databases such as Zoological Record or the Science Citation Index.

Permits

• Information on permits for collecting and research
• More on permits and application forms
• Tissue sampling Permits, methods, transport, links
• Bird Banding Laboratory and link to Canadian Banding Office

Photographs

• Visual Resources for Ornithology (VIREO) A comprehensive collection of bird photographs accessible for scientific and public use
• Fotosearch Offers over 150,000 stock photographs of birds

Publishing

• Ethical Guidelines for authors, reviewers and editors
• Guidelines for determining sequence of authors

Students

• 2006 Workshop presentations on getting a student grant
• Hints for getting an AOU Research Award
• More links for students (how to find a grad program, poster/presentation tips, grant sources, free statistics programs)
• Find a research project: database of high priority conservation questions
• BRANTA: BOU Register of Avian Thesis Abstracts
• Wilson Society’s Guide to Graduate Programs

Taxonomy

• Avibase An extensive database information system about all birds of the world, containing over 1.4 million records about 10,000 species and 22,000 subspecies of birds, including distribution information, taxonomy, synonyms in several languages and more. This site is managed by Denis Lepage and hosted by Bird Studies Canada, the Canadian copartner of Birdlife International.