Anyone can view or listen to media in the Macaulay Library, including all media uploaded via eBird, using the media search. See below for some hints on different ways to search for the photos, audio recordings, or video you're looking for.
Search media by type
If you want to see only photos or only sound recordings while browsing media, click on the camera icon to see only photos, click on the speaker icon to see only recordings, and click on the video camera icon to see only videos.
Sort media by date and quality
Once you’ve performed a search, the results are sorted by "Recently Uploaded" by default. Near the top of the page on the far right side, you’ll see "Recently Uploaded" with a blue down arrow. Click on the blue down arrow to change the sort options, either "Best Quality", "Least Rated", "Date: Newest First", or "Date: Oldest First."
Search media by location
Search for media in a specific county, state, province, country, eBird Hotspot, or National Wildlife Refuge.
Search media by date
If you are looking for photos for a specific time period, click on Date and enter the details. If you are looking for media for an exact date, try search for the month and sorting by Newest First.
Search media by contributor
Search for media from a specific contributor. Just enter their name and if the Macaulay Library has media from them, their name will autofill in the box.
Find your media
Are you looking for a way to see all of your media? First, you’ll need to sign in to your Cornell Lab account. Next, click on My Media at the end of the search bar. If you want to see your media listed in a spreadsheet, click the Save Spreadsheet button to download an instant database of your media and associated metadata.
Advanced search
If you are looking for specific features, click on More Filters to see the dozens of ways you can further specify what media you want to see. These include searching by age and sex, behaviors, sound types (for audio and video), other tags, eBird checklist or ML catalog number, and special collections, such as the Internet Bird Collection (see example below). So if you're looking for song from female birds, a specific catalog number, or only images of birds in flight, try some of these filters. (Keep in mind, however, that not all media is tagged by the contributor, so additional media relevant to your search may exist in the archive that these filters won't find.)
Change your view
Changing how results are displayed in search is as simple as a click of a button! Under the right side of the search bar, you’ll see three buttons. The left button turns on "Gallery" view, which shows you a tilework of media, with the species name and contributor visible when you mouse-over the photo. The middle button turns on "Grid" view, which shows smaller images with more information about the media itself, such as date, location, and rating. The right button turns on "List" view, which shows a thumbnail of the media with the greatest variety of accompanying information at a glance.
Find non-bird media
Did you know there are several different search modes available in Macaulay Library’s search? You can change search mode by clicking the green button at the left end of the search bar, which gives you the search options: Birds (only media of birds), All Animals (media of birds plus other animals in the Macaulay Library), Region (returns all media from a specified area), Hotspot (returns all media submitted from a specific eBird hotspot), and Contributor (returns all media submitted by a specific contributor).
Rate media
While you're browsing media, don’t forget to help curate the archive by rating the quality of photos, videos, and recordings. Read more about guidelines for rating photos, video, and audio.
