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Contact: Julie Navejar
kajam03@tamuk.edu or 361-593-2590

Bird ecologist to present programs

KINGSVILLE (March 2, 2006) — Steven Kelling, director of information technology at Cornell Lab of Ornithology, will make two presentations at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. He specializes in bird ecology and gathering information worldwide to document bird occurrence and movements. The Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute sponsors his presentations.

Kelling will make a technical presentation, An Introduction to the Avian Knowledge Network, at 2 p.m. Tuesday, March 6, in room 149 of Kleberg Hall (formerly the Kleberg Engineering Building). The focus of the Avian Knowledge Network is to first organize the distributed data resources of the bird-monitoring community and then to develop innovative analyses to help us understand the factors that impact bird populations across North America.

A public presentation will be held at 7 p.m. March 6, at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Center at the Tio and Janell Kleberg Wildlife Research Park. Kelling’s topic will be Lassoing the Power of Birders for Conservation.

He will discuss how the eBird website is benefiting bird populations in North America, how biologists are working with the public to track bird observations, how scientists are using the data to uncover bird movement patterns, why it is important to identify critical areas for birds and how educators can use this to teach students about birds.

Kelling has always had a personal interest in birds and bird watching, which began while growing up along the Delaware Bay shore in New Jersey. From this beginning, he has had a long interest in organizing the rich information resources of field observations of birds gathered by bird-watchers into a cohesive data resource for inventorying the abundance and distribution of wild bird populations.

Kelling first came to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in 1997 from the Applied and Engineering Physics program at Cornell University to work on the creation of BirdSource. A joint program with Audubon, the goal of BirdSource was to develop internet applications that engage bird-watchers in citizen science projects focused on birds.

At the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, he is responsible for managing an extremely dedicated group of technology professionals who are bringing advances in information science to the field of ornithology.

His primary interests and responsibilities revolve around four broad topics: the development of internet data gathering tools for observational-based monitoring projects; the use of novel digital library strategies to create global communities of interested users centered around primary scientific references; the organization of the rich data resources of the bird-monitoring community and integrating these resources within existing bioinformatic infrastructures; and using unique computer science strategies to analyze the distribution and abundance of wild bird populations.

For more information, call 361-593-4500.

This page last updated 3 March, 2006