It’s Alive! Spring 2008 Living Bird

There’s a new issue of Living Bird up online. Check it out for new articles on Alaska’s Black Oystercatchers, a haute-couture Common Loon and its ungainly loonling, and editor Tim Gallagher’s trip to Peru amid Pearl Kites, Cocks-of-the-Rock, and Marvelous Spatuletails. Also on tap is Pete Dunne’s column, the Catbird Seat, this time about how to destroy a perfectly good pair of binoculars. Plus a reminiscence on southeastern Arizona and plenty more.

But what does a new issue of the magazine have to do with a website redesign? Well, it’s a glimpse of the future. Take a look at Alex’s warm design of Living Bird and you’ll see the direction we want to go. We’re also trying to make it easier to find video, audio, and other material of interest. Check out the Google map that takes you on site with the oystercatchers and their nests.

Living Bird is also one way we say thank you to our members. Lots of people don’t know this, but the Lab of Ornithology is a nonprofit organization funded by donors, members, sponsors, and grants that our scientists apply for. So four times a year, we send our 30,000 members a print copy stuffed with mouth-watering photos and vivid articles.

As we move our website into its next stage, we’re thinking of other ways to keep in touch with our visitors. Supporting membership is one way, but there might also be a free sign-up – along the lines of other online communities, from booksellers to travel agents to news services. Once you were logged in, you could choose what features you used and customize the way you appear online.

So tell us what you think: would you enjoy personalizing your trips to the Lab’s website? Or are you suffering from password fatigue already? And the same goes for feedback on the new issue: We’re all ears. Thanks for reading.