Welcome
In two centuries of American ornithology, The Birds of North America
(BNA) is only the fourth comprehensive reference covering the life
histories of North America’s breeding birds. Following in the footsteps
of Wilson, Audubon, and Bent, BNA provides a quantum leap in
information beyond what those historic figures were able to assemble.
The print version of BNA was completed in 2002 – 18 volumes, 18,000
pages -- a joint 10 year project of the American Ornithologists' Union, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology,
and the Academy of Natural Sciences.
Now as an online project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, BNA is
becoming a living resource. Account contents are updated frequently,
with contributions from researchers, citizen scientists, and designated
reviewers and editors. In addition, BNA Online contains image and video
galleries showing plumages, behaviors, habitat, nests and eggs, and
more. And most online BNA accounts now feature recordings of the songs
and calls of their species, recordings selected from the extensive
collection of Cornell's Macaulay Library
of Natural Sounds. Future work will enhance BNA’s audio and video
contributions, speed revisions via efforts coordinated online, and
provide a significant boost to the number of photos available to
subscribers. Stay tuned!
What's New in BNA
Update (January 2010) New Fully Revised Species Account--Canada Warbler. Revised by Len Reitsma, Marissa Goodnow and Michael T. Hallworth.Are you an AOU member trying to login to BNA? Please read this first.
Update (January 2010) New Fully Revised Species Account--Bell's Vireo. Revised by Barbara Kus, Steven L. Hopp and R. Roy Johnson. Newly updated photo, video and audio galleries as well.
Update (December 2009) New updates to Screech-Owl accounts--Newly published research on the taxonomy (Systematics article) and appearances (Appearance article) of Western, Eastern and Whiskered Screech-Owls, written by BNA subeditors Michael Patten and Peter Pyle. Newly updated photo galleries for each species. Read more about the role of these subeditors in this note from the BNA editor-in-chief, Alan Poole.
Update (November 2009) New Fully Revised Species Account--Scaled Quail. Revised by C. Brad Dabbert and Greg Pleasant.
Update (November 2009) New Fully Revised Species Account-- Snowy Plover. Revised by Gary W. Page and Lynne E. Stenzel.
