Bird Lovers Build Bird Database

Volunteers are sorting through 90 years of handwritten notes documenting the migration habits of birds to digitize the information and make it accessible to researchers.

Ken Pauley is an avid birdwatcher. Now his love of birds is keeping him indoors. Pauley is one of numerous volunteers who are sorting through six million handwritten cards documenting bird sightings between 1880 and 1970 and transferring the information into a computer database. As Amy Mayer reports, the information could help researchers’ efforts to find out more about bird migration and the effects of climate change.