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Help illustrate The Birds of North America!

By Team eBird 10 May 2016

Steller's Jay, Los Angeles, CA, June 2015. David Hollie/Macaulay Library

We are in the process of performing a complete redesign of the ground-breaking online natural history series, The Birds of North America (BNA). These digital species monographs represent the most authoritative natural history resource for all of North America’s breeding birds, used by thousands of birders and researchers around the world. The new update will feature a completely revised look and feel for all species accounts, as well as more in-depth revisions of individual accounts moving forward each month. As part of the new update, we plan to more closely link the content presented in the BNA with other growing resources at the Cornell Lab or Ornithology, especially eBird and the Macaulay Library. By leveraging the strengths of eBird to create more precise species distribution information, and the Macaulay Library to create high quality, curated galleries of rich media, the BNA will become a more complete and dynamic resource. At eBird, we are now encouraging our users to contribute high quality rich media for the first three focal species in the redesign: American Robin, Osprey, and Steller’s Jay.

The galleries of photos and sounds in the BNA will consist of photos submitted to eBird and housed in the Macaulay Library at the Lab. We will select the highest quality images for the BNA; not only those that focus on plumage details, age/sex differences, and subspecies, but also those that showcase various natural history aspects for each species. To contribute your photos for the BNA, upload a checklist to eBird (this provides the basic metadata we need–what, where, when, and who), and then upload your photos. For this purpose, we recommend submitting JPG files that are at least 2500 pixels on the long edge (bigger is fine), cropped at a 5×3 aspect ratio. Because photographers are attributed wherever their photos are used, we ask that you do not watermark these images. BNA editors will make the final picks for inclusion in these galleries. Thanks for considering letting the Cornell Lab of Ornithology use your images in the most definitive natural history collection of breeding North American birds.

The BNA is also seeking cover images of the species listed below. These images will be featured on the home page of each species account, along with photographer attribution, eBird checklist, and Macaulay Library catalog number. To submit your best images, follow the same instructions outlined above. You can explore the media already available through the Macaulay Library through the Media Search tool.

  1. Himalayan Snowcock
  2. Black Francolin
  3. Townsend’s Shearwater
  4. Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel
  5. Dovekie
  6. Ring-billed Gull
  7. Yellow-footed Gull
  8. Herring Gull
  9. Red-billed Pigeon
  10. Flammulated Owl
  11. Whiskered Screech-Owl
  12. Buff-collared Nightjar
  13. Eastern Whip-poor-will
  14. Mexican Whip-poor-will
  15. Chimney Swift
  16. Vaux’s Swift
  17. Magnificent Hummingbird
  18. Blue-throated Hummingbird
  19. Lucifer Hummingbird
  20. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
  21. Broad-tailed Hummingbird
  22. Rufous Hummingbird
  23. Xantus’s Hummingbird
  24. Belted Kingfisher
  25. Red-headed Woodpecker
  26. Red-bellied Woodpecker
  27. Hairy Woodpecker
  28. Arizona Woodpecker
  29. Red-cockaded Woodpecker
  30. American Three-toed Woodpecker
  31. Pileated Woodpecker
  32. White-winged Parakeet
  33. Red-crowned Parrot
  34. Thick-billed Parrot
  35. Greater Pewee
  36. Western Wood-Pewee
  37. Eastern Wood-Pewee
  38. Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
  39. Willow Flycatcher
  40. Dusky Flycatcher
  41. Cordilleran Flycatcher
  42. Dusky-capped Flycatcher
  43. Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher
  44. Thick-billed Kingbird
  45. Bell’s Vireo
  46. Black-capped Vireo
  47. Cassin’s Vireo
  48. Philadelphia Vireo
  49. Red-eyed Vireo
  50. Green Jay
  51. Sky Lark
  52. Cave Swallow
  53. Mexican Chickadee
  54. Gray-headed Chickadee
  55. Tufted Titmouse
  56. White-breasted Nuthatch
  57. Canyon Wren
  58. Winter Wren
  59. Sedge Wren
  60. California Gnatcatcher
  61. American Dipper
  62. Red-whiskered Bulbul
  63. Bluethroat
  64. Bicknell’s Thrush
  65. Swainson’s Thrush
  66. Wood Thrush
  67. American Robin
  68. Crested Myna
  69. Eastern Yellow Wagtail
  70. White Wagtail
  71. Ovenbird
  72. Worm-eating Warbler
  73. Northern Waterthrush
  74. Golden-winged Warbler
  75. Blue-winged Warbler
  76. Tennessee Warbler
  77. Virginia’s Warbler
  78. Connecticut Warbler
  79. Mourning Warbler
  80. American Redstart
  81. Cerulean Warbler
  82. Tropical Parula
  83. Bay-breasted Warbler
  84. Black-throated Blue Warbler
  85. Canada Warbler
  86. Wilson’s Warbler
  87. Painted Redstart
  88. Yellow-breasted Chat
  89. White-collared Seedeater
  90. Botteri’s Sparrow
  91. Dark-eyed Junco
  92. White-throated Sparrow
  93. Summer Tanager
  94. Rose-breasted Grosbeak
  95. Lazuli Bunting
  96. Brown-capped Rosy-Finch
  97. Cassin’s Finch
  98. Pine Siskin
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