History of the Macaulay Library

Documenting bird behavior has been a central goal of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology since its inception. It was a major focus of the Lab's founders and, from the earliest days, played a crucial role in its outreach and educational missions.

Naturally, documentation formats have evolved over the last 80 years. The Lab has often been a key agent in developing and promoting new technologies for that documentation.

The current incarnation of this long history is the Macaulay Library: a digital archive accessible to the public. It is an archive containing the world's largest collection of animal sounds and a rapidly growing video library of animal behavior.

We invite you to explore the timeline above to learn how the Macaulay Library came to be, and its central role in shaping the evolution of animal behavior study.