Ornithology

©Frank Boyden, Otis, Oregon

 

 

Staying current with information challenges all of us.  There never seems to be enough time to browse that new journal of check the latest blog.  A few strategies may help you be more efficient.

 

• Subscribe to table of contents from the publishers.

Most publishers provide ways for you to receive the latest table of contents.  These may be as RSS feeds or email alerts. You'll have to register with the site to get the email alerts.

• Set up a reader for RSS feeds.

This is a consoloidated way to check the journals, blogs and web sites you like to monitor.  Examples include Bloglines, NewsGator and Feed Reader. Check here for more information.  

• Create alerting services in the databases.

Most databases have a way for you to save your searches and have them run periodically.  The results are emailed to you.  Check here for more information .

 

Here are the main links you'll need from the OSU Libraries Home Page:

• OSU Libraries Catalog
• Databases
• E-Journals

Articles on birds appear in a wide variety of journals. Be sure to browse others focused on animal conservation, ecology and behavior. The listings include the call number for print copies at the OSU Libraries and when available the links to electronic copies. Some electronic access is limited to OSU computers as the Libraries purchases the access. The records in the OSU Libraries catalog list all of our access points. SORA provides free access to older issues of several important journals.

 

These are some of the core journals.

	Print	Electronic - Archives	Electronic - Current
Auk	QL671 .A8	v.1 (1884) - v.116 (1999)	v.117 (2000) - present
Bird Conservation International	QL676.5 .B48		v.10 (2000) - present
Colonial Waterbirds	QL671 .C65	Not available	See: Waterbirds
Condor	QL671 .C6	v.1 (1889) - v.101 (1999)	v.102 (2000) - present
Ibis	QL671 .I2		v.144 (2002) - present
Journal of Avian Biology	QL671 .O56	v.29 (1998) -v.35 (2004)	v.35 (2004) - present
Journal of Field Ornithology	QL671 .B4	v.1 (1925) - v.70 (1999)	v.71 (2000) - present
Waterbirds	QL671 .C65	See: Colonial Waterbirds	v.25 (2002) - present
Wilson Bulletin	QL671 .W5	v.1 (1889) - v.111 (1999)	v.112 (2000) - present

These are specific to the Pacific Northwest and Oregon. Other regions have specialized journals as well.

	Print	Electronic
Journal of Oregon Ornithology	QL671 .J61	v.1 (1993) - v.6 (1996)
Oregon Birds	QL671 .O64
Pacific Seabirds	QL683.P37 P32
Western Birds	QL684.C2 C3

 

The OSU Libraries have an excellent ornithology collection. You can find books and reports by searching the catalog. You can search by title, author, keyword or subject.

Gaunt, A.S. & L.W. Oring. Guidelines to the Use of Wild Birds in Research. 1999 (2nd ed.)

Available electronically.

Gill, F. B. Ornithology. 1995 (2nd ed.)

QL673 .G515 1995

Marshall, D.B., M.G. Hunter & A.L. Conteras. Bird of Oregon: a general reference. 2003

QL684.O6 B56 2003

Paulson, D. Shorebirds of the Pacific Northwest. 1993

QL683.P36 P38 1993

Sibley, D.S. The Sibley Guide to Birds. 2000

QL681 .S497 2000

Obviously, there is a flock of web resources on birds. Here are a few of interest.

 

Audubon Society of Corvallis and Yaquina Birders

Local bird groups.

BirdNET

A service of the Ornithological Council with links to the major socieites and discussions of topics of concern.

Electronic Resources on Ornithology

An impressive list of links to resources throughout the world. Compiled by Canadian enthuasists.

Managing Bird Populations in the Pacific NW

   Tools to provide a landscape-level approach to managing bird populations in Pacific NW forests. Compiled by the Institute for Bird Populaions.

NatureServe

Useful data, species profiles and maps buried in this site maintained by this non-profit conservation group.

Oregon Field Ornithologists

Of local interest with links to records, publications and general references.

Ornithological Societies of North America

Links to the major societies and online newsletter lists jobs and educational opportunities.

SORA (Searchable Ornithological Research Archives)

An open access archives to some of the most used journals.

USGS Bird Banding Laboratory

A program co-sponsored by the Canadian Wildlife Service and the US Department of the Interior

 

Some people just start browsing the journals or grab a field guide . Others make a more methodical search through the databases to find specific information. When starting research, the later is recommended although GoogleScholar is not a bad place especially if you do not access to the specialized databases.

 

Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA)
Provides good access to marine and estuarine bird material as well as bird/fish interactions.

Avibase
Includes distribution information, taxonomy, synonyms in several languages and more onover 10,000 species and 22,000 subspecies worldwide.

Biosis
The standard index for general biology so covers the core literature and captures bird articles from journals in other fields suchs as genetics and behavior.
 
Birds of North America
An excellent resource for basic descriptions, images, calls and more.
 

Ornithological Literature Worldwide (OWL)

An interesting joint effort among the American Ornithologists' Union, the British Ornithologists' Union and Birds Australia to capture current and historic citation.

 

Web of Science
One of the more comprehensive science databases that also provides citation information.

Wildlife and Ecology Worldwide

Good international coverage of more obscure ornithogy journals and reports as well indexing the core literature.

 

Zoological Record

Another classic index that remains an excellent source for taxonomy as well as more general queries.