AnnuAl RepoRt to membeRs | 2012 - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Innovating Innovation Opens the Means New to Possibilities Discover the for Unknown…and Discovery Open Conservation New PossibilitiesAburning passion for discoverydrives the best scientific research,but innovative technology canpush research even farther,into realms that were previously enigma.Realms like the mysteries of bird migration,which have been cracked open a bit widerwith recent revelations about nighttimeflights. Each spring and fall, unseen riversof millions of Neotropical migrants flowoverhead in the darkness. They speaka secret language of night flight callsthat are very different from most of thevocalizations these birds make during theday. To interpret this vast mystery, CornellLab engineers are inventing and improvingtechnologies to tune in to night flightcalls and develop the fuller picture of birdmigration needed to protect birds acrossour 21st-century landscape.5