Bird World - Bird World is not a general site for bird-spotters, as its name might suggest, but a clearly designed text-book style website designed to present avian research papers in an accessible format and with a high level of photographic support. One paper describes a project undertaken by the U.S. Geological Survey's Biological Resources Division which was set up to teach 13 greater Sandhill cranes new migration routes between northern Arizona and the wintering areas by the Mexican border. The paper provides a thoroughly researched and detailed account of this experiment, but it is hardly worth visiting the site for this alone, and there is very little else. However, Bird World also makes available an archive of data, navigated via an interactive map, which details the migration habits and flight data of a number of species of birds. This site has potential but currently only provides a limited specialist resource which can hardly be justified without further contributions and expansion. (27 July 2001) TA
http://sdcd.gsfc.nasa.gov/test-bin/Jones.cgi/...

The Ornithology WebSite - There's access to a serious amount of information here in this unfussy and quick to load series of pages dedicated, it says, to the education of bird ecology and conservation. If you are quietly wondering how to attract hummingbirds into your garden, you find out here and the site is full of useful tips; for example how to keep your birdhouse clean and disease free. The live newsfeed was up to date and there's also a chat facility; a must for the ardent twitcher. (12 May 2001) BA
http://birdwebsite.com/

Introduction to the Aves - This introduction to Birds branches from the University of California, Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Home Page. Naturally it has an evolutionary bias and is aimed at people interested in birds from the palaeontological point of view. Much information focuses on exhibits in the museum and many of the highlights lead to other exhibition halls. The four main, illustrated Aves icons feature "fossil records", "life history and ecology" (all in one page) "systematics" and "more on morphology". "Systematics" for example covers extinct lineages of birds and merely touches on present day Palaeognathae (ostriches and flightless birds) and Neognathae (all the rest). But if you then want to know more on modern birds, there are plenty of links to follow. (11 February 2001) CCL
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/birds/b...

Blue Tits in Cyberspace - Crammed with information on Blue tits, this site also extends to their relatives - Great tits, Marsh tits, Coal tits and Long tailed tits. Pages cover morphological descriptions, nesting and breeding, habitat but especially behaviour (hierarchies, feeding techniques you name it - did you know there were right and left handed great tits? What "tools" they use?). For bird lovers we're also told what, and just as important I've learnt, what not, to feed them on. Great photographs for identification from the RSPB archives and Virtual Bird. The over-elaborate page design and colours can be hard on the eye after a time. The site is part of the UK birding web ring and was last updated in July, 1999 - so hopefully this could be rectified soon and perhaps the promised American kin added. (22 January 2001) CCL
http://home.istar.ca/~amon/bluetits_index_.htm

Chickscope - Chickscope is a multimedia schools project in the U.S. in which classes with internet access study chicken embryo development. They use a remotely controlled MRI instrument to monitor embryonic processes and share data with scientists and other classrooms. There are tutorials on image enhancement techniques and you can learn how to build an incubator for your own chick study. EggMath is a section entirely dedicated to the mathematics of eggs - its symmetry, embryo calculus and the white/yolk theorem. The more traditional diagrams are included, along with a step by step explanation of the biological changes throughout embryo development. Chickscope is a great source of information for older students as well as providing some good ideas for younger classrooms. (17 January 2001) JSG
http://chickscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/

Common Birds of the Australian National Botanical Gardens - A small site with factfiles on a dozen avian Australians, including the superb fairy-wren, the Eastern spinebill and the pied currawong. You won't find an in-depth review of each bird's natural history, but this shortcoming is balanced by some generously-sized sound files so you can hear what you're reading about. You can click on the thumbnail illustrations of each species to reveal larger versions, though all the images are in black and white, which is disappointing given the fact that some of the species covered are brightly coloured in real life. Follow the links to the larger Australian National Botanic Gardens site, which has plenty of interesting material to browse, including some excellent mammal artwork, and lots of botanical information. (4 December 2000) RJN
http://155.187.10.12/anbg/birds.html

The Canadian Peregrine Foundation - This site is dedicated to assisting the recovery of peregrine falcons and other raptors in Canada and features a number of webcams of peregrines on concrete ledges and concrete ledges conspicuous by their lack of peregrines. (Which begs the question 'What is a live webcam?' Some of these were last updated 4 weeks ago). Despite this, the site includes lots of info on peregrine biology, photo galleries and nest site reports. All in a very good cause. (26 September 2000) BA
http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/

Treetop explorations - 'Treetop Explorations' is an organisation that constructs amazing walkways in forest canopies for photographers, researchers, students and the like. The site has some great arial photos of a number of walkways, constructed mainly in the tropical forests of Central and South America, at heights of up to 36 meters above ground. The organisation also provides bird watching tours and talks and the site includes some beautiful photos of forest birds. (28 July 2000) BA
http://www.nemaine.com/treetopexplorations/in...