Win Binoculars in Contest About Feathers!

Cornell Lab of Ornithology News Release

Rumpled or resplendent, how a bird’s feathers are displayed can be an indication of how its day is going. The Celebrate Urban Birds citizen-science project is looking for entries to its “Fascinating Feathers” challenge—entries may be photos, artwork, videos, poems, or stories and must be submitted to www.CelebrateUrbanBirds.org by January 15, 2014.

Some birds, like the Black-capped Chickadee shown above, have an abnormal amount of  white in their feathers. Photo by Luke Berg. Birds with tufts or crests can raise or lower them at will, indicating everything from interest to irritation. Their feathers may be ruffled by the wind or because they see another bird trespassing on their territory. They may spread their wings or tails. And birds spend a lot of time preening to keep their feathers clean and can twist themselves into some strange positions.

"Consider the ordinary city pigeon," says project leader Karen Purcell. "This gray and white bird may be quite boring to some, but a closer look reveals stunning iridescent purple and green feathers on its neck and upper chest. That’s the goal of this challenge: to get people of all ages outside looking at birds more carefully and finding beauty in even the most common birds."

To learn more about the Fascinating Feathers challenge and contest rules, visit www.CelebrateUrbanBirds.org. Winners will be posted on the Celebrate Urban Birds website. Prizes include Pennington bird feeders, Opticron binoculars, bird sound CDs, and much more.

Celebrate Urban Birds is a free citizen-science project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Participants collect information about birds in cities and get communities involved in nature through science, gardening, and the arts.