Birds
Selected Internet Resources on California Birds
Birds of the World (BTW) - LPC LIBRARY LOGIN REQUIRED - provides comprehensive life histories for each of the 716+ species of birds breeding in the
Borror Lab Home Page - “houses one of the largest collections of recorded animal sounds in the world.” Search by common or scientific name from the “approximately 28,000 recordings of over 1000 species of animals.”
California Academy of Sciences - Steinhart Aquarium, Natural History Museum, Morrison Planetarium: " ...devoted to the study, display and interpretation of scientific collections which inspire people of all ages to explore the rich variety of life on Earth"
California's Wildlife - information on the 600+ amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles found in California: including name, distribution, habitat requirements, life history, and bibliography (Zeiner, D.C., ed. California's Wildlife. 1988-1990.
CalPhotos: Animals - "...thousands of photographs of amphibians, birds, fish, insects, invertebrates, mammals, and reptiles." Searchable and browsable. UC, Berkeley.
Golden Gate Raptor Observatory - "Volunteers of the the GGRO, a program of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy in cooperation with the National Park Service, have been tabulating the annual fall migration of birds of prey over the Marin Headlands. This migration—the most significant of its kind in the western United States—soars over Hawk Hill in the southern Headlands, a critical place from which to monitor eagles, vultures, falcons, hawks, and kites of more than 19 species, and to track long-term changes in their populations."
IBC: The Internet Bird Collection - contents for this website have been provided by the Handbook of the Birds of World, including summary-box information, distribution maps, foreign language names, taxonomy data and subspecies and distribution data. The IBC is "a non-profit endeavour with the ultimate goal of disseminating knowledge about the world's avifauna. It is an on-line audiovisual library of the world's birds that is available to the general public free of charge. While the initial aim is to post at least one video or photo per species, the long-term objective is to eventually include material showing a variety of biological aspects (e.g. feeding, breeding, etc.) for every species."
Infrared Zoo - features thermal infrared photographs of dozens of animals including birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, and insects and arachnids, including an illustrated essay on the differences between warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology Data Access - database of 600,000+ specimen records and some photographs of amphibians, birds, bird eggs, mammals, and reptiles
The NBII: Your Home for Biological Information on the Web - (National Biological Information Infrastructure) use the NBII to answer a wide range of questions related to the management, use, or conservation of this nation's biological resources.
Quail, Valley: State Bird of California - features the valley quail, Lophortyx californica; its habits and habitats; and includes an image
Ravens - scientific information and folklore on the raven and related birds in the crow family
Tool Use in Corvids - discussion of tool use and tool making by crows is illustrated; investigates "the biology of decision-making with the tools of evolutionary biology and experimental psychology"
Vertebrate Flight Exhibit - includes information on types of aerial locomotion (parachuting, gliding, flight, soaring), physics (biomechanics), and evolutionary theory (ground up and trees down scenarios); profiles the origin and evolution of flight in pterosaurs, birds, and bats
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: National Image Library - images of "wildlife, plants, National Wildlife Refuges and other scenics, as well as wildlife management work"
Western Field Ornithologists - an organization that promotes the study of birds throughout western North America including Hawaii, the northeastern Pacific Ocean, and Western Mexico. The organization strives to increase knowledge, appreciation, and protection of birds and their habitats through annual meetings, field trips, and publications, primarily Western Birds, a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal that focuses on field-oriented descriptive ornithology.
